ASTRAEOSPONGIIDAE Miller, 1889

Family? ASTRAEOSPONGIIDAE Miller, 1889

Remarks. The classification of heteractinids is currently difficult to apply consistently, with only four families listed by Finks and Rigby (2004a). Of these, the Eiffeliidae are thin-walled (normally a single layer of spicules), and probably plesiomorphic and paraphyletic ( Botting and Muir 2018). The Wewokellidae have robust spicules including septiradiates, whereas the Nuchidae are normally aspiculate, with a perforated calcareous wall. The remaining family, Astraeospongiidae , is diverse and includes essentially all the species not included in the other families, but consists largely of thick-walled, bowl-shaped to vasiform sponges with robust, mostly octactine spicules that are often partly fused. As a result, the Astraeospongiidae includes most of the morphological features seen in the new species. This includes a shallow bowl-shaped to domal morphology in several genera, a thick wall with a disorganized spicule array and even the presence of fine monaxons in genera such as Ensiferites Reimann, 1945 . In most astraeospongiid genera, at least the outer spicules are thickened to the point of becoming lumpy and irregular. In Blumenbachium Koenig, 1820 , the spicules are dominantly four-rayed, and hexaradiate spicules are absent; however, this understanding is based only on the original illustrations ( Finks and Rigby, 2004a), and the morphology of these spicules resembles receptaculitid meroms; it may, therefore, not be a sponge. Nonetheless, of the existing families within the Heteractinida , only the Astraeospongiidae is able to accommodate most aspects of the morphology and spiculation of the new species, and it is tentatively included there.