Leucosolenida

Leucosolenida is an order of sponges in the class Calcarea and the subclass Calcaronea.^[1] Species in Leucosolenida are calcareous, with a skeleton composed exclusively of free spicules without calcified non-spicular reinforcements.^[2][3]

Leucosolenida
Grantia compressa (Grantiidae)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Porifera
Class:	Calcarea
Subclass:	Calcaronea
Order:	Leucosolenida Hartman, 1958
Families
See text.

According to Systema Porifera (2002), Lucosolenida contains 9 families, ranging from fully asconoid forms (Leucosoleniidae) to fully leuconoid forms. These body plans are on a continuum based on an increasingly complex skeletal system and compartmentalized choanocytes.^[3] A few sources (such as the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, 2004) place non-asconoid families into a separate order, Sycettida.^[4] Leucosolenids have a poor fossil record, with only a few ambiguous grantiid fossils reported from the Jurassic and Carboniferous.^[4]

Families

• Achramorphidae Borojevic et al., 2002 (formerly known as Staurorrhaphidae)^[2]
• Amphoriscidae Dendy, 1892
• Grantiidae Dendy, 1892
• Heteropiidae Dendy, 1892
• Jenkinidae Borojevic et al., 2000
• Lelapiidae? Dendy & Row, 1913
• Leucosoleniidae Minchin, 1900
• Sycanthidae Lendenfeld, 1891
• Sycettidae Dendy, 1892 (sometimes known as Syconidae)^[1]