Vauxia is an extinct genus of demosponge that had a distinctive branching mode of growth. Each branch consisted of a network of strands. Vauxia also had a skeleton of spongin (flexible organic material) common to modern day sponges. Much like Choia and other sponges, Vauxia fed by extracting nutrients from the water. Vauxia is named after Mount Vaux, a mountain in Yoho National Park, British Columbia. It was first described in 1920 by Charles Doolittle Walcott. Vauxia fossils are found in North America, specifically in the United States and Canada. References External links Fauna and Flora of the Burgess Shale Verongimorpha Prehistoric sponge genera Paleozoic sponges Paleozoic life of British Columbia Burgess Shale sponges Maotianshan shales fossils Cambrian first appearances Silurian extinctions Taxa named by Charles Doolittle Walcott Fossil taxa described in 1920 Fossils of Canada Fossils of Greenland Fossils of the United States Cambrian genus extinctions