Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Ventriculite

Ventriculite , noun

[See Ventriculus.]

(Paleontology) Any one of numerous species of siliceous fossil sponges belonging to Ventriculites and allied genera, characteristic of the Cretaceous period.

Many of them were shaped like vases, others like mushrooms. They belong to the hexactinellids, and are allied to the Venus's basket of modern seas.