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More than 8000 species of sea sponges live in oceanic and freshwater habitats. [1] Sponge fishing historically has been an important and lucrative industry, with yearly catches from years 1913 to 1938 regularly exceeding 181 tonnes and generating over 1 million U.S. dollars.
Hexactinellid sponges require a hard substrate, and do not anchor to muddy or sandy sea floors. [6] They are found only where sedimentation rates are low, dissolved silica is high (43–75 μM), and bottom currents are between 0.15 and 0.30 m/s. [5] Dissolved oxygen is low (64–152 μM), and temperatures are a cool 5.5-7.3 °C at the reefs. [5]
The study’s authors collected sponges from waters at least 100 feet deep off Puerto Rico and near the island of St. Croix, analyzed their skeletons’ chemical composition, charted their ...
About 311 million years ago, in the Late Carboniferous, the order Spongillida split from the marine sponges, and is the only sponges to live in freshwater environments. [8] Some species are brightly colored, with great variety in body shape; the largest species are over 1 m (3.3 ft) across. [ 6 ]
Winter and McCulloch said these rusty orange long-lived sponges — one of them was more than 320 years old when it was collected — are special in a way that makes them an ideal measuring tool ...
The relatively large encrusting sponge Lissodendoryx colombiensis is most common on rocky surfaces, but has extended its range into seagrass meadows by letting itself be surrounded or overgrown by seagrass sponges, which are distasteful to the local starfish and therefore protect Lissodendoryx against them; in return, the seagrass sponges get ...
[4] [9] They are known to live in marine reef and marine benthic habitats, relatively close to shore. [2] They have been found between a depth of 1–30 m, but they are more abundant at deeper depths (15–30 m). [4] They live in waters with high salinity and warm temperatures, with water in the Red Sea never dropping below 21 °C (70 °F). [10]
Spheciospongia vesparium, commonly known as the loggerhead sponge, [2] is a species of sea sponge belonging to the family Clionaidae. While it is highly toxic to many fish, this sponge is eaten by certain angelfish and is known to form part of the diet of the hawksbill sea turtle ( Eretmochelys imbricata ).