Theneidae
Theneidae is a family of sponges belonging to the order Tetractinellida.

Emőke Dénes · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikidata/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- PachastrellidaPBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Demospongiae
- Life habit
- intermediate-level epifaunalPBDB, for Demospongiae
- Motility
- stationary, attachedPBDB, for Demospongiae
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Porifera
Time the record covers
At least 51 million years on record.
The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 20.45 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 15.98 Mya.
4 occurrences of Theneidae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
4 occurrences- Late Cretaceous75%
- Miocene25%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
2 formations
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The named rock units Theneidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Theneidae and its relatives
Late CretaceousWhere Theneidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.
Found in the same rock
262 taxa- Plinthosella squamosa3 sites
- Amphilectella piriformis2 sites
- Amphithelion (Amphithelion) macrommata2 sites
- Amphithelion cupula2 sites
- Aphrocallistes alveolites2 sites
- Aphrocallistes cylindrodactylus2 sites
- Astrocladia subramosa2 sites
- Aulaxinia sulcifera2 sites
- Aulosoma radiciformis2 sites
- Callicylix (Cyclostigma) acinosa2 sites
- Callopegma acaule2 sites
- Chonella tenuis2 sites
- Coeloptychium agaricoides2 sites
- Coeloptychium deciminum2 sites
- Coeloptychium incisum2 sites
- Coeloscyphia racemosa2 sites
- Colossolacis plicata2 sites
- Coscinopora infundibuliformis2 sites
- Coscinostoma fragilis2 sites
- Craterella auricula2 sites
- Cycloclema compressa2 sites
- Doryderma (Brochodora) ramusculus2 sites
- Doryderma (Brochodora) roemeri2 sites
- Doryderma ramosum2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Theneidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
3 references- Die Kieselspongien der oberen Kreide von Nordwestdeutschland, Teil 1 Tetraxonia, Monaxonia und Silicea incert. sedis [Upper Cretaceous sponges from north-western Germany, part 1 Tetraxonia, Monaxonia and Silicea incert. sedis]2
- Bathyal sponges from the late Early Miocene of the Vienna Basin (central Paratethys, Slovakia)1
- Catalogue of the fossil sponges in the Geological Department of the British Museum (Natural History)1
Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1

Picture of Theneidae
- Source
- Wikidata/Commons
- Credit
- Emőke Dénes
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Theneidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Theneidae”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itPachastrellida through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1872