Helicolocellus cantori was recovered near Hexactinellida in the cited morphology analysis; that sampled topology is not a direct-ancestor or universal animal-tree claim.
claim:taxon:helicolocellus:taxonomyHelicolocellus
Goblet-shaped fossils with nested quadrate grids provide an organic-skeleton body-plan test whose crown-sponge placement is a morphology-matrix result.
Represented range551–539 Ma
Content packagesponges-cnidarians
PBDBtxn:492146
Evidence boundary
Automated checks cover structure, identifiers, translations and links only; maintainer and external expert review are not complete.
Claim ledger
The profile is bounded to Shibantan material from the Dengying Formation and does not infer the genus’s complete distribution.
claim:taxon:helicolocellus:biogeographySessility and suspension feeding are functional inferences from the proposed sponge body plan, not observed behaviour or physiology.
claim:taxon:helicolocellus:ecologyNIGP-176531 and referred specimens preserve a large goblet-shaped body built from nested quadrate grids in a helical organization.
claim:taxon:helicolocellus:morphologyThe 551–539 Ma display interval is a formation-level envelope for the sampled material, not a global FAD, LAD or crown-sponge age.
claim:taxon:helicolocellus:fossil-rangeKnown limits
- A missing branch or fossil occurrence does not imply biological absence. Internal nodes are not calibrated divergence estimates.
References
- A late-Ediacaran crown-group sponge animalWang, X.; Liu, A.G.; Chen, Z.; Wu, C.; Liu, Y.; Wan, B.; Pang, K.; Zhou, C.; Yuan, X.; Xiao, S. · 2024 · DOI 10.1038/s41586-024-07520-y
- 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