New species: carnivorous sponge shaped like a comb

[muriel_volestrangler]

(though the official description is "The basic structure, termed a vane, is harp- or lyre-shaped&quot

It’s a sponge. And if that’s not weird enough, it’s a carnivorous sponge: it apparently eats copepods, small aquatic crustaceans.

As you may know, the vast majority of sponges are filter feeders, removing organic particles (bacteria and phytoplankston) from water by sucking it in, taking out the good stuff, and expelling the water. But in the deep sea, where organic material is scarce, some sponges have taken up the habit of eating animals. While this has been known for 17 years, beginning in 2000 and continuing through 2007, a series of deep-sea dives using remotely operated submarine vehicles have discovered these weird creatures living off the California coast at about 3300 m. down (that’s nearly two miles!).

The paper describing this new species, Chondrocladia lyra, was just published in Invertebrate Biology by Welton Lee et al. (reference and link to abstract below; full paper is below a paywall but I can send a pdf to those interested). The paper is long and (for those who don’t love sponges) rather tedious, but the finding is exciting: this thing preys on other animals (sponges are, of course animals themselves).



http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/carnivorous-thingie-in-the-deep-sea/

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[littlemissmartypants]

2. ...

[htuttle]

3. Those things look as alien as anything I've ever seen on Earth

If you told me that they found it under the ice on Europa, I'd almost believe it.

[mercuryblues]

4. So that's what Trump uses to comb his hair.

[DetlefK]

5. Aren't carnivorous (=burger-eating) sponges shaped like a square?