Belongs within: Heteroscleromorpha.
The Niphatidae are a family of sponges in which the ectosomal skeleton is a three-dimensional, often somewhat irregular reticulation of pauci- or multi spicular fibres or tracts, and the choanosomal skeleton anisotropic but not neatly rectangularly meshed.
<==NiphatidaeBJ06
|--NiphatesFS14
| |--N. nitida Fromont 1993FV09
| `--N. olemda (de Laubenfels 1954)FS14
|--Pachychalina diffusaBJ06
| |--P. d. diffusaBJ06
| `--P. d. affinis Hentschel 1912BJ06
|--AmphimedonFV09
| |--A. lamellata Fromont 1993FS14
| |--A. paraviridis Fromont 1993FV09
| `--A. queenslandicaHO09
|--CribrochalinaFS14
`--GelliodesBJ06
|--G. digitalisMS98
|--G. fibulata (Carter 1881)FV09
|--G. gracilis Hentschel 1912BJ06
|--G. hamata Thiele 1903BJ06
|--G. macrosigma Hentschel 1912BJ06
|--G. obtusa Hentschel 1912BJ06
`--G. porosa Thiele 1903BJ06
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
[BJ06] Barnich, R., & D. Janussen. 2006. Die Typen und Typoide des Naturmuseums Senckenberg, Nr. 86. Type catalogue of the Porifera in the collections of the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Senckenbergiana Biologica 86 (2): 127–144.
[FS14] Fromont, J., & A. Sampey. 2014. Kimberley marine biota. Historical data: sponges (Porifera). Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 84: 69–100.
[FV09] Fromont, J., & M. A. Vanderklift. 2009. Porifera (sponges) of Mermaid, Scott and Seringapatam Reefs, north Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 77: 89–103.
[HO09] Hejnol, A., M. Obst, A. Stamatakis, M. Ott, G. W. Rouse, G. D. Edgecombe, P. Martinez, J. Baguña, X. Bailly, U. Jondelius, M. Wiens, W. E. G. Müller, E. Seaver, W. C. Wheeler, M. Q. Martindale, G. Giribet & C. W. Dunn. 2009. Assessing the root of bilaterian animals with scalable phylogenomic methods. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B—Biological Sciences 276 (1677): 4261–4270.
[MS98] Margulis, L., & K. V. Schwartz. 1998. Five Kingdoms: An Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth 3rd ed. W. H. Freeman and Company: New York.