To be honest, the taxonomic status of sponges has never worried me much, nor has it impinged on my daily life. Apparently though, the debate as to where sponges fit into the metaphorical ‘tree of life’ has finally been [...]
Good morning, I’m finally getting around to actual dive photos I took on my last trip to the Caribbean, here’s a little window into a dive-site called “Valley of the Sponges”. The morning we did this dive a small boat came from shore over to our ship and picked me and two other Smithsonian [...]
Sponges are great filter feeders If you do any diving anywhere, you will see sponges everywhere. Some of them are more colorful than corals, and some of them you can sit in. All sponges are water pumps and filters, which makes them useful in the sea and in our reefs. Sponges don’t move, they sit [...]
Rock Beauty Angelfish (Holacanthus tricolor)On one of my earliest dives down in the Florida Keys back in the 1990s, a gorgeous yellow and black angelfish caught my attention as I drifted over a section of reef. In my mind’s eye, I envision the angel hovering boldly above a large barrel sponge, [...]
I’m continuously fascinated by all of the different things that live in our oceans. Sponges are the simplest of the multicellular organisms and also among the oldest, with a fossil record extending back to the last part of the Precambrian period, about 550 million years ago. When I go snorkeling [...]
Although commonly regarded as the most primitive multicellular animal group, sponges – members of the phylum: Porifera, are both diverse and interesting. Currently, this phylum is described as consisting almost completely of 3 distinct classes: Demospongea, Calcarea, and Hexactinellida. Roughly [...]
NOAA announced the release of the 2012 Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program Biennial Report to Congress. The Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program provides scientific information needed to conserve and manage deep-sea coral ecosystems. New and currently unprotected [...]