Fossil History
Fossil records for demosponges are poor but possible first-occurence data support Early Cambrian origins of the class, behind the Hexactinellida and Calcarea (Nichols, 2005). While, due to the nature of sponge tissue and content, the fossil records maybe poor for demosponges another within the class Hexactinellida have been reported back to the Burgess Shale (Botting & Butterfield, 2005). This shows that while a fossil record for Rhabdastrella globostellata is not identifiable, examples to its parent class have been noted early in evolutionary history. |