Chondrocladia

Chondrocladia, the ping pong ball sponges, is a genus of carnivorous tree sponges of the family Cladorhizidae. Neocladia was long considered a junior synonym, but recently become accepted as a distinct genus.

Thirty-three named species are placed in this genus at present, but at least two additional undescribed ones are known to exist, while some of the described ones are known only from a few specimens or (e.g. the enigmatic Chondrocladia occulta) just a single one, and their validity and/or placement in Chondrocladia is doubtful. Chondrocladia sponges are stipitate, with a stalk frequently anchored in the substrate by rhizoids and an egg-shaped body, sometimes with branches that end in inflatable spheres.

Fossils assignable to this genus are known since the Pleistocene, less than two million years ago. However, given its deep sea habitat, Chondrocladia may well have been around for much longer – it existed perhaps as early as the Mesozoic Era, as characteristic spicules (termed "microcricorhabds" or "trochirhabds"), almost identical to those of some living Chondrocladia, are known from Early Jurassic rocks almost two hundred million years old.