REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR, 1922 T21 
A COLOSSAL DEVONIAN GLASS SPONGE 
BY JOHN M. CLARKE 
It is a pleasure to record the fact that this evidence of the 
immense size to which the glass sponges of the Devonian planta- 
tions in New York grew, was discovered by a venerable lady, 
when well past her one hundredth year, on her farm near Ripley, 
Chautauqua county; Mrs H. A. Burton, Prof. Gilbert D. Harris’s 
aunt. It is to the kindness of Mrs. Burton and the courtesy of 
Professor Harris of Cornell University, that this specimen is now 
in the State Museum and this opportunity afforded of public notice 
of this extraordinary fossil. 
In a brief oral acount of it I have termed this unique specimen 
“the Burton Sponge,” but technically it appears to be a repre- 
sentative of the genus Ceratodictya which is characterized by its 
long horn shape, covered with concentric rings or annulations. 
The elevated rings are simple and about equidistant in early 
growth, but as the sponge grew older and upward these annuli 
became divided at the top by a low furrow which gradually 
deepened until it had become nearly as deep as the interannular 
depressions. Also as growth advanced the rings had a tendency 
to become less regular, more crowded together, relatively much 
narrower and on the whole less conspicuous. The specimen is a 
fragment 14 inches long and 8 inches wide, which presumably 
represents the final growth of the sponge and shows ephebic 
conditions in the form of the rings, their irregular subdivision, 
the terminal ring having divided twice, and in a tendency to 
become faintly nodose. There is, however, no good reason for 
disconnecting this expression of growth from that shown in 
smaller and presumably younger specimens. On the assumption 
that the present width of the specimen, even though compressed, 
is approximately the true width of the original and by comparison 
of its relative proportions with those of younger and larger indi- 
viduals in the Museum, it seems fairly reasonable to conclude 
that this specimen attained a length of not less than 10 feet. 
The restoration of this sponge in its probable original dimen- 
sions has been erected in the Museum. The specimen is from the 
Chemung sandstones (upper marine Devonian). 
