| Word: Astrorhiza Description: Traces of the excurrent canal system on or within a rigid skeleton that appear as radiating or star-shaped grooves. Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
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| Word: Astrorhiza Description: Traces of the excurrent canal system on or within a rigid skeleton that appear as radiating or star-shaped grooves. Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
No image available. | Word: Cemented (fused) spicule Description: Interlocked or adjacent spicules firmly linked by calcareous cement; the cement may be restricted to the junction area or may progressively encase the entire spicule Synonyms: Fused Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
No image available. | Word: Coenosteum Description: Term for cnidarians, used for the solid skeleton in stromatoporoids; to be rejected for sponges in favor of rigid calcareous skeleton. Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
No image available. | Word: Column Description: Radial skeletal element in stromatoporoids, with a greater degree of continuity and larger than PILLARS. Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
No image available. | Word: Corallite (= calyx) Description: In cnidarians, term for the external skeleton of a polyp; to be rejected for sponges in favor of PSEUDOCALYX. Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Crypt tissue Description: Masses of thesocyte-like cells lodged within the basal crypts (chambers) of the calcareous skeleton (see ct in figure). Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
No image available. | Word: Crystal ultrastructure Description: Organization of the skeletal crystals observed after special preparation showing the relationship between organic and mineral phases. Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Entrapped spicules Description: Calcareous or siliceous spicules that are not part of the primary spicule framework but are progressively enclosed within a solid skeleton during growth Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Epitheca Description: A thin, wrinkled, calcareous layer, different in structure from the normal skeleton, covering the dead basal part of a rigid calcareous skeleton Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
No image available. | Word: Fascicular fibrous (= water-jet, penicillate, trabecular) microstructure Description: Crystal fibers fanning outward and radiating upward. In the penicillate type (e.g., Ceratoporella), crystal fibers are feebly divergent; in the water-jet type (e.g., Merlia), crystal fibers progressively fan outward around the growth axis; in the trabecular type (cnidarian, unknown in sponges), the crystal fibers are symmetrically arranged around the growth axis and axial fibers are absent Synonyms: Penicillate , trabecular , water jet Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
No image available. | Word: Filling (tissue) structure Description: Secondary calcareous skeleton that partitions or fills abandoned parts of the skeleton. Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Foramen Description: Circular pore in laminae connecting adjoining interlamellar spaces (fo in figure, which also shows cc = choanocyte chamber; ct = crypt tissue; sk = rigid aspicular skeleton; spi = spicule; and ta = tabula). Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
No image available. | Word: Irregular (felt) microstructure Description: Structure in which tangled crystal fibers have no preferred orientation (e.g., genus Vaceletia). Shape and nature of the crystal fiber may be diverse Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Lamina Description: Calcareous plate in stromatoporoids, perpendicular to radial skeletal components Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Latilamina Description: A macroscopic, banded calcareous skeletal plate in stromatoporoids Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
No image available. | Word: Linked spicules Description: Spicules that are interlocked by zygosis, without cement Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Mamelon Description: Rounded regular or irregular elevation of the skeleton surface; may or may not show correlation with astrorhizae Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Microgranular microstructure Description: Diverse structure in which small, round elements are scattered Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Microlamellar microstructure Description: Structure in which the crystal fibers are disposed in criss-cross layers, mostly parallel to the surface of the skeleton (e.g., genus Acanthochaetetes) Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
No image available. | Word: Microstructure Description: The arrangement of crystals that form the skeletal components, as seen without special preparations. Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Orthogonal microstructure Description: Microstructure in which the crystal fibers are in perpendicular and radial orientation relative to a central axis Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Pillar Description: Radial skeletal component, relatively short compared with COLUMN Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Primary calcareous skeleton Description: Initially formed skeletal components Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Primary spicule framework Description: Framework of spicules around which a cement is deposited Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Pseudocalyx (pl. pseudocalices) Description: One of a group of skeletal tubes - closely packed together, mostly hexagonal in shape and containing the live material - that resemble the calices or corallites of cnidarians. Synonyms: Calyx Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Rigid aspicular skeleton Description: Skeleton that originates from the direct secretion of aspicular elements made up of calcium carbonate; siliceous or calcareous spicules may be secondarily entrapped in the skeleton during the growth process (sk in figure). Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Rigid spicular skeleton Description: A skeleton in which the main framework is first made up of fused or linked spicules that may later be invested by an aspicular cement Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Sclerodermite Description: Aggregate of crystals forming a microstructural unit of the calcareous skeleton Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Secondary calcareous skeleton Description: Skeletal components formed after the deposition of the primary calcareous skeleton Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
No image available. | Word: Spherulitic (= spheroidal) microstructure Description: Globular (centric or excentric) arrangement of crystal fibers radiating from a common center (e.g., genus Astrosclerd) Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Tabula Description: Plate or floor that partitions the basal part of a skeletal cavity (ta in figure). Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
No image available. | Word: Tabulate osculum Description: Osculum in stromatoporoids that has been repeatedly partitioned by secondarily deposited tabulae. Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |
| Word: Zygosis Description: Mode of junction between siliceous and calcareous tetraradiates characterized by the interlocking of their terminal or lateral expansions; cement, if present, is secondary. Category: Calcareous Rigid Skeleton |