Why does my spherize look so weird?

[Photonite]

I used the elliptical marquee tool on this texture,then Filter>Distort>Spherize,then this happened.

[Dean_Utian]

The screenshot looks normal to me. What did you want it to look like?

If you select part of the image and then apply a filter, the effect will only be applied to the selected area. The Spherize filter makes  a graphic look like it has been applied to a sphere, which means that straight lines become curved. In your texture, the cracks appear as curved consistent with what the filter is meant to do.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

The Selection is useless with Spherize when applied to Smart Objects.

[Photonite]

Your suggestion worked! But why does it not work when applied to smart objects?

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Selections for Filters applied to Smart Objects are, it seems, used as Masks for the Smart Filters and not quite the same way as when applied to plain pixel layers.