A new classification of sponges from the Eocene of Australia

The newly collected, very rich and well preserved material showed that previously wrongly attributed Eocene sponges from SW Australia belong to the demosponge family Phymaraphiniidae. Two new genera, Twertupia and Pickettispongia are proposed for them. This is the first record of bodily preserved phymaraphiniid sponges from Eocene rocks, as well as from the southern hemisphere. The reported occurrence is filling the stratigraphical gap between well-known Cretaceous phymaraphiniids from Europe and extant phymaraphiniids.