Hamptoniella foliata (ROM 43816) – Holotype. Complete specimen. Specimen height = 20 mm. Specimen dry – direct light (left), wet – polarized light (right). Trilobite Beds on Mount Stephen.
© Royal Ontario Museum. Photos: Jean-Bernard Caron
Hamptoniella is a primitive demosponge, with a type of skeleton considered transitional between Hamptonia and Hazelia (Rigby, 1986). Demosponges, the same group that are harvested as bath sponges, represent the largest class of sponges today.
Hamptoniella – unspecified; possibly from the town of Hampton in Virginia (see Hamptonia). The Latin suffix, ella is added to Hampton to form a diminutive.
foliata – from the Latin folia, “leaf,” in reference to the leaf like aspect of the sponge.
Burgess Shale and vicinity: H. hirsuta Rigby and Collins, 2004 from the Trilobite Beds on Mount Stephen.
Other deposits: none.
The Trilobite Beds on Mount Stephen.
This sponge was described by Rigby and Collins (2004) based on new material collected by the Royal Ontario Museum.
Hamptoniella foliata is a relatively small sponge, with its body shape varying from funnel-shaped to turbinate. The skeleton is composed of simple and straight spicules that are pointed at both ends (oxeas). The axial zone of the sponge does not have a central cavity (spongocoel) and there is no large opening (osculum). Instead a number of subvertical and relatively large canals are present in the axial area. Smaller sized canals diverge from the larger canals towards the sides and the top of the sponge. Spicules tend to be clustered and parallels to canals. H. hirsuta differs from H. foliata, by appearing more spinose.
H. foliata has been described based on 3 specimens and H. hirsuta based on a single specimen.
Hamptoniella would have lived attached to the sea floor. Particles of organic matter were extracted from the water as they passed through canals in the sponge’s wall.
RIGBY, J. K. AND D. COLLINS. 2004. Sponges of the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale and Stephen Formations, British Columbia. Royal Ontario Museum Contributions in Science (1): 155 p.
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