An enigmatic fossil of sponge affinities from Middle Ordovician rocks of western Newfoundland

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Abstract
A loaf-shaped, spongelike organism is described as Lapidipanis terranovae n. gen. n. sp. from the Table Point Formation. The organism is composed of poorly defined radial and concentric skeletal elements that are formed by spherules from 0.2 to 0.6 mm across. The spherules consist of radially arranged, wedge-shaped crystals of calcite that may appear to be isolated in a calcite mosaic or in contact with their neighbours. The organism is compared with the modern sclerosponge Astrosclera. If chaetetids and stromatoporoids are excluded from the class Sclerospongiae, Lapidipanis may be the oldest member of this class so far described.

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