Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 July 2017
Sponges or Porifera are among the most primitive and simplest of metazoan organisms and have a long geologic record, based largely on mineralized skeletal elements termed spicules. Spicules, then, are of interest to micropaleontologists, and their study and interpretation provide opportunities for wide-based research by researchers ranging from student beginners to professionals and for research throughout the geologic column and across the country. Much of the detailed geologic record of spicules is yet to be discovered.