External characters
Partially burrowing; subspherical, massive, buttressed base (50mm diameter, 100mm high), with small tapering fistules on apex (up to 30mm long, 10mm basal diameter) with basal portion buried beneath the sediment and fistules protruding through the sand.
Colour
Colour. Yellow-brown in life (Munsell 7.5YR 7/8), pale brown in ethanol.
Skeletal Characters
| Oscules | Oscules. Large, up to 8mm diameter, on apex of fistules. |
| Texture | Compressible, harsh, easily torn; sand and coral rubble embedded on under surface and outer surface of base. . |
| Surface_Ornamentation | Irregular, transparent and hispid |
| Ectosomal_Skeleton | Multispicular tracts of larger choanosomal styles, up to 3 spicules abreast, lie tangential to the surface, and irregular bundles of smaller ectosomal styles arranged mostly paratangentially to the surface as plumose brushes. Collagen present but light in ectosomal region. |
| Choanosomal_Skeleton | Choanosomal skeleton. In deeper regions of the sponge the skeleton is a disorganised halichondrioid criss-cross of both unispicular and multispicular tracts, containing 5-10 spicules abreast, composed of larger choanosomal styles; in the subectosomal region tracts become more wide-meshed, paratangential, producing a cavernous subectosomal region; in fistules choanosomal tracts more compressed in axial region, cavernous towards the periphery; cavities are at least as wide as the spicule bundles, up to 400µm in basal region, 1.5mm in fistules. Choanosomal spicule tracts predominantly composed of larger styles, whereas smaller (ectosomal) styles are also scattered throughout the mesohyl. Collagen moderately abundant in axial, sparse in peripheral skeleton; no spongin fibres observed. |
| Megascleres | Spicules. Larger choanosomal styles variable in size, straight or slightly curved at centre, fusiform with sharp points or very slightly stepped points, tapering to a hastate rounded base which is smaller in diameter than the centre of spicule (length 355-(521.6)-775µm, width 8-(19.2)-32µm). Smaller ectosomal styles fusiform, sharply pointed with evenly rounded bases (length 153-(246.5)-330µm, width 6-(9.1)-12µm). |
| Microscleres | nil. |
| Mudmap_Author | JNA Hooper |
| Mudmap_Editor | JNA Hooper |
Distribution
In French Polynesia: Tuamotu archipelago is.
Ecology and habitat
On the outer reef slope. Burrowing in sand, mud, coral rubble, shell grit substrates; 4-72m depth range.
JNA Hooper (2014). QM0149 Chalinula sp. (OTU QM0149) . In: Hall, K.A. & Hooper, J.N.A. (2014) SpongeMaps: an online community for taxonomy and identification of sponges. (Available at http://www.spongemaps.org).
