Eocyathispongia qiania is represented by one phosphatized specimen interpreted as sponge-grade; the profile does not convert that interpretation into crown-Porifera membership or direct ancestry.
claim:taxon:eocyathispongia:taxonomyEocyathispongia
One phosphatized Doushantuo specimen preserves a millimetre-scale three-tube body interpreted as sponge-grade anatomy; that affinity remains a single-specimen hypothesis.
Represented range609–600 Ma
Content packagesponges-cnidarians
PBDBtxn:324165
Evidence boundary
Automated checks cover structure, identifiers, translations and links only; maintainer and external expert review are not complete.
Claim ledger
The profiled occurrence is restricted to the Weng’an biota of the Doushantuo Formation in Guizhou and does not establish a global range.
claim:taxon:eocyathispongia:biogeographyA sessile suspension-feeding mode is inferred from the proposed sponge-grade body plan; diet, pumping and habitat preference were not observed.
claim:taxon:eocyathispongia:ecologyThe holotype preserves a millimetre-scale multicellular body with three tubes, funnel-like openings and an osculum-like opening imaged by SEM and tomography.
claim:taxon:eocyathispongia:morphologyThe 609–600 Ma atlas envelope is a formation-level context for one specimen, not a global Eocyathispongia or Porifera FAD, LAD or lineage duration.
claim:taxon:eocyathispongia:fossil-rangeKnown limits
- A missing branch or fossil occurrence does not imply biological absence. Internal nodes are not calibrated divergence estimates.
References
- Sponge grade body fossil with cellular resolution dating 60 Myr before the CambrianYin, Z.; Zhu, M.; Davidson, E.H.; Bottjer, D.J.; Zhao, F.; Tafforeau, P. · 2015 · DOI 10.1073/pnas.1414577112
- Open Tree of Life web servicesOpenTreeOfLife Project
- The Paleobiology Database application programming interfacePeters, S.E.; McClennen, M. · 2016 · DOI 10.1017/pab.2015.39
- Denormalized occurrence and taxon tables of the Paleobiology DatabaseThe Paleobiology Database Community; Kocsis, Á.T. · 2026 · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21620933