Bodily preserved Eocene non-lithistid demosponge fauna from southern Australia: taxonomy and affinities

Exceptionally well-preserved non-lithistid demosponge body fossils are reported from outcrops of the late Eocene Pallinup Formation, Fitzgerald River National Park, south-western Australia. Among 11 species, eight are new to science and belong to heteroscleromorph orders: Bubarida (Eolipastrotethya picketti gen. et sp. nov., Monocrepidium unispiculatum sp. nov. and M. pauli sp. nov.), Axinellida (Phycopsis arbusculum sp. nov.) and Tetractinellida (Triptolemma solida sp. nov., Pachastrella intermedia sp. nov., P. australis sp. nov. and Geodia hopetouni sp. nov.). A further three species are representatives of the orders Clionaida, Bubarida and Tetractinellida. This fauna has clear affinities with living taxa. Close relationships with some Recent Atlantic species may be understood in the context of a Tethyan legacy. New light is shed on the evolutionary histories of several taxa that are reported for the first time in the fossil record.http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:6AA2FD29-A88E-49FA-B112-2FF4C6BE2787