Galapagos Species Database
The Galapagos Species Database shares the information about the species from our Natural History Collections.
Craniella lissi
Esponja, Sponge
A rare species found at Isabele Island at 15 m. The sponge is buried basally in soft sediment by tiny roots that attach to sand grains as anchors. Only upper half of sponge visible (Hickman, et al. 2021).
Named for co-author Cleveland Hickman’s son-in-law Frederic Liss MD, who accompanied Cleve on numerous dive trips and was supportive in the development of the Galápagos Marine Life Series of field guide(Sim-Smith et al., 2021).
Domain
Eukaryota
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Porifera
Class
Demospongiae
Order
Tetractinellida
Family
Tetillidae
Genus
Craniella
Species
lissi
Taxon category: Accepted
Holotype: MCCDRS9409, Las Marielas, Isabela Island, 0.597° S, 91.092° W, 15 m, 2 Dec 2004; Type locality: Las Marielas, Isabela Island (Sim-Smith et al., 2021).
Origin: Endemic
Map of specimen collection localities or observation records for this species in our collections database.
Distribution: Galapagos Islands: Las Marielas-Isabela Island (Sim-Smith et al., 2021).
- Hickman, C.P. Jr. Sim-Amith, C. & Michelle, K. (2021) A field guide to Sponge of Galápagos. Sugar Spring Press, Lexington, Virginia.
- Horton, T. Horton, T., Kroh, A., Ahyong, S., Bailly, N., Boyko, C. B., Brandão, S. N., Gofas, S., Hooper, J. N. A., Hernandez, F., Holovachov, O., Mees, J., Molodtsova, T. N., Paulay, G., Decock, W., Dekeyzer, S., Poffyn, G., Vandepitte, L., Vanhoorne, B., Adlard, R., ... Zhao, Z. (2021) World Register of Marine Species. Available from https://www.marinespecies.org at VLIZ.
- IUCN (2023) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2023-1. Https://www.iucnredlist.org
- Sim-Smith, C. CLEVELAND HICKMAN, J. R., & Kelly, M. (2021) New shallow water sponges (Porifera) from the Gálapagos Islands Zootaxa, 5012(1), 1–71. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5012.1.1
You are welcome to download and use the information found in this page, acknowledging its source.
This page should be cited as follows:
"Galapagos Species Database, Craniella lissi", dataZone. Charles Darwin Foundation, https://datazone.darwinfoundation.org/en/checklist/?species=18820. Accessed 3 November 2026.