Choia

Choia is a genus of extinct demosponge ranging from the Cambrian until the Lower Ordovician periods.

[4] Choia was originally thought to be not attached to the sea bed: the living animal was originally thought to rest directly on the substrate, with the radiating spines from the edge of its flattish, conical body, giving an appearance not unlike that of the peak of a big top, with guy lines.

Recently discovered fossils from Lower Ordovician Morocco show that the living animal was actually suspended high above the seafloor, attached via stalk-like spines derived from spicules.

[5] Water is assumed to have entered the sponge parallel to the spines, being expelled, presumably, from a central opening.

[6] 127 specimens of Choia are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.2% of the community.

Reconstruction of C. carteri , as according to the Fezouata specimens [ 2 ]