Family Polymastiidae Gray, 1867

Abstract

Polymastiidae Gray (Demospongiae: Hadromerida) contains 14 genera and approximately 100 species. Species live in all oceans, but some genera are found predominantly in shallow waters at high latitude and in deep waters elsewhere. They are often globular, cushion shape or discoid. The genera of this family share a radiating choanoskeleton and a more or less complicated cortex, the outer layer being always a palisade of ectosomal spicules.