{"database":"biostudies-literature","file_versions":[],"scores":null,"additional":{"submitter":["Rossi ME"],"funding":["European Research Council","Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council"],"pagination":["eadx1754"],"full_dataset_link":["https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC12778063"],"repository":["biostudies-literature"],"omics_type":["Unknown"],"volume":["12(2)"],"pubmed_abstract":["Sponges (Porifera) are ecosystem engineers that play a critical role in global biogeochemical processes. Their evolution is key to understanding Neoproterozoic paleoecology but remains mired in controversy. Molecular timescales suggest a Tonian or Cryogenian origin, while their oldest unequivocal fossils consist of disarticulated siliceous spicules from the Late Ediacaran. We derived a new, dated sponge phylogeny and tested whether ancestral sponges had mineralized skeletons. We resolve the sponge phylogeny in good agreement with current knowledge and date their origin to the early Ediacaran. Our results suggest that early sponges were not biomineralized and that both biosilicification and biocalcification evolved independently multiple times across Porifera. We reconcile fossil evidence a"],"journal":["Science advances"],"pubmed_title":["Independent origins of spicules reconcile paleontological and molecular evidence of sponge evolutionary history."],"pmcid":["PMC12778063"],"funding_grant_id":["BB/Y003624/1","788203"],"pubmed_authors":["Pisani D","Riesgo A","Kenny NJ","Schuster A","Koutsouveli V","Alvarez-Carretero S","Giacomelli M","Rossi ME","Cardenas P","Keating JN","Taboada S","Donoghue PCJ"],"additional_accession":[]},"is_claimable":false,"name":"Independent origins of spicules reconcile paleontological and molecular evidence of sponge evolutionary history.","description":"Sponges (Porifera) are ecosystem engineers that play a critical role in global biogeochemical processes. Their evolution is key to understanding Neoproterozoic paleoecology but remains mired in controversy. Molecular timescales suggest a Tonian or Cryogenian origin, while their oldest unequivocal fossils consist of disarticulated siliceous spicules from the Late Ediacaran. We derived a new, dated sponge phylogeny and tested whether ancestral sponges had mineralized skeletons. We resolve the sponge phylogeny in good agreement with current knowledge and date their origin to the early Ediacaran. Our results suggest that early sponges were not biomineralized and that both biosilicification and biocalcification evolved independently multiple times across Porifera. We reconcile fossil evidence a","dates":{"release":"2026-01-01T00:00:00Z","publication":"2026 Jan","modification":"2026-07-15T13:22:29.424Z","creation":"2026-07-05T03:08:26.211Z"},"accession":"S-EPMC12778063","cross_references":{"pubmed":["41499514"],"doi":["10.1126/sciadv.adx1754"]}}