Lower Cambrian demosponges and hexactinellid sponges from Yunnan, China

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Abstract
The assemblage of demosponge and hexactinellid sponges described here was collected from the Lower Cambrian, Atdabanian, Yu'anshan Member of the Chiungchussu Formation, at the Maotianshan and Xiaolantian sections in Chengjiang County, Yunnan Province, 70 km southeast of Kunming. The sponges occur in relatively massive to weakly graded-bedded, grayish-yellow mudstone and silty mudstone. They are associated with other soft-bodied and skeletonized fossils. The new demosponge species and genera Choiaella radiata, Allantospongia mica, and the questionable sponge Parvulonoda dubia are described, along with new specimens of Leptomitus teretiusculus Chen, Hou, and Lu, 1989, the hexactinellid sponge, Triticispongia diagonata Mehl and Reitner, 1993 and the probable hexactinellid sponge, Saetaspongia densa Mehl and Reitner, 1993. The sponges occur in what may be distal turbidite deposits, and they may have been buried essentially in situ by these argillaceous accumulations.