brain sponge Guitarra fimbriata

Guitarra fimbriata is found in Antarctica, South Georgia Island, Falkland Islands, South Africa, New Zealand, West Indies, and in the North Pacific, North Atlantic, central Atlantic and Indian Oceans at depths from 28 to 920 meters [1,2,4,5]. The body of G. fimbriata is cushion-shaped, loaf-like, rounded, globular, or finger-like [1,5]. A larger specimen was measured at ten centimeters high by twelve centimeters across and six centimeters thick [3]. G. fimbriata is usually soft and elastic with a fragile texture; its color ranges from white to light gray to brown [1,5].

Taxonomic Note: There has been considerable discussion on the status of G. fimbriata [6].

1: Sponges of the Antarctic. I. Tetraxonida and Cornacuspongida. VM Koltun. IN: Biological reports of the Soviet Antarctic Expedition, 1955-1958 (Rezultaty biologicheskikh issledovanii Sovetskoi antarkticheskoi ekspeditsii, 1955-1958). Volume 2. EP Pavlovskii, ed. Jerusalem : Israel Program for Scientific Translations. 1966. pp.6-131; Appendix, Index of Latin Names on pp. 443-448; 2: Hooper, JNA & Wiedenmayer, F. Porifera. IN: Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Volume 12. Wells, A, ed. Melbourne : CSIRO Australia, 1994; 3: Further Zoological Results of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition 1901-1903. Volume 3, Number 2. Sponges. M Burton. Stockholm : PA Norstedt and Soner, 1934; 4: Polar Biology 12:559-585, 1992; 5: Marine Fauna of New Zealand: Porifera, Demospongiae, Part 4 (Poecilosclerida). PR Bergquist & PJ Fromont. New Zealand Oceanographic Institute Memoir 96. Wellington : New Zealand Oceanographic Institute, 1988; 6: Systema Porifera. JNA Hooper and RWM Van Soest. New York: Kluwer, 2002

Text ©Peter Brueggeman. Photograph ©Jim Mastro. Photographs may not be used in any form without the express written permission of Jim Mastro.