A guide to the deep-water sponges of - NMFS Scientific Publications ...

99. Halichondria (Halichondria) colossea Lundbeck, 1902
Description. This species appears as originally described
and is irregularly cup-shaped and somewhat
compressed. Large osculum is on the inside of the cup.
The surface is smooth on the outside and hispid on the
inside of the cup. The consistency is firm. Width is to 50
cm and height to 30 cm. Color in life is greyish brown
to creamy white.
Skeletal structure. Smaller oxeas have tangential
arrangement in the ectosome and larger oxeas are in
characteristic confused “halichondroid” arrangement
in the choanosome. Oxeas in two size categories range
in length from 140–2000 µm.
Zoogeographic distribution. Rare. In Alaska – Bering
Sea (Pribilof Canyon). Elsewhere – North Atlantic
Ocean (Denmark Strait).
Habitat. In Alaska – attached to cobbles at a depth of
300 m. Elsewhere – reported at a depth of 1039 m.
Remarks. The specimen collected in Pribilof Canyon
is only the second record for the species worldwide
and the first from the Pacific Ocean. Several specimens
collected from the Atlantic Coast of the U.S. (Massa-
119
chusetts) have been tentatively identified as H. colossea
(Van Soest 6 ).
Photo. 1) Fragment of a specimen collected at a depth
of 300 m in Pribilof Canyon, Bering Sea.
6 Van Soest, Rob. 2008. Personal commun. Zoological Museum, University
of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 1090 GT.