An upper Miocene hexactinellid sponge from the Puente Shale, Orange County, California

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Abstract
Well-preserved, laterally flattened, farreid hexactinellid sponges of the new species Farrea rugosa have been recently discovered in the upper Miocene Puente Shale in the Peralta Hills in southeastern Anaheim, Orange County, California. This is the first farreid sponge reported from the Miocene of California and is one of the few Miocene sponges reported from North America. The cluster is of upward bifurcating, moderately complex sponges in which branches are regularly rugose and skeletons are each a single layer of dictyid net, with aborted proximal and distal rays in the otherwise laterally fused quadruled skeleton of original silica. The sponges occur in pinkish brown sandy siltstone in the limited exposure beneath older alluvium that blankets much of the local area.