| Willardia caicosensis | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Porifera |
| Class: | Demospongiae |
| Order: | Clionaida |
| Family: | Acanthochaetetidae |
| Genus: | Willardia |
| Species: | W. caicosensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Willardia caicosensis Willenz & Pomponi, 1996 | |
Willardia caicosensis is a species of deep sea sclerosponge (coralline sponge) from the Turks and Caicos Islands. It was first described by Philippe Willenz of the Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique in Brussels, Belgium and Shirley Pomponi, now of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution at Florida Atlantic University.
Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera, are a basal Metazoa (animal) clade as a sister of the Diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through them, consisting of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cells. The branch of zoology that studies sponges is known as spongiology.
The Turks and Caicos Islands are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and northern West Indies. They are known primarily for tourism and as an offshore financial centre. The resident population was 31,458 as of 2012 of whom 23,769 live on Providenciales in the Caicos Islands; July 2018 estimates put the population at 53,700. It is the third largest of the British overseas territories by population.
Florida Atlantic University is a public university in Boca Raton, Florida, with five satellite campuses in the Florida cities of Dania Beach, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, and in Fort Pierce at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution. FAU belongs to the 12-campus State University System of Florida and serves South Florida, which has more than five million people and spans more than 100 miles (160 km) of coastline. Florida Atlantic University is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a research university with high research activity. The university offers more than 170 undergraduate and graduate degree programs within its 10 colleges. Programs of study cover arts and humanities, the sciences, medicine, nursing, accounting, business, education, public administration, social work, architecture, engineering, and computer science.
