First articulated Silurian sponges from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal)

The first-described articulated Silurian sponges from Spain and Portugal include a moderate assemblage of hexactinellids and a single monaxonid demosponge. The sponges were collected from a thin layer at the top of the Cyrtograptus lundgreni Monograptus testis graptolite biozone, in a possible volcanic ash of latest Homerian (Wenlock) age. The sponges are from southeastern Portugal and southwestern Spain in the Ossa-Morena Zone of the Hesperian Massif. The hexactinellid collection includes several specimens of the new species, Protospongia iberica, and fragments of Diagoniella species and Gabelia(?) sp. Specimens of the latter two taxa are too small for species identification. Demosponges are represented by a single described specimen of a probably new genus and species preserved as a 'wreath' of monaxon spicules. Dermal and gastral layers are of very fine spicules developed over the moderately coarse, aligned, principal body spicules.