micromastictora

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. In Sollas's classification of sponges, one of two main branches of the phylum Parazoa or Spongiæ, characterized by the comparatively small size of the choanocytes, which are about 0.003 millimeter in diameter. The Micromastictora are all non-calcareous sponges, and are divided by Sollas into two classes, Myxospongiæ and Silicispongiæ. They are also called Noncalcarea (Vosmaer) and Plethospongiæ (Sollas). The term is contrasted with Megamastictora.