When most people think of sponges, they think of squishy, soap-filled kitchen sponges, or perhaps the graceful barrel sponges that grow around coral reefs. But in the dark depths of the ocean ...

A Venus’s-flower-basket isn’t all show. This stunning deep-sea sponge can also alter the flow of seawater in surprising ways. A lacy, barrel-shaped chamber forms the sponge’s glassy skeleton ...

Sponge frillgobies live between 30 feet to 100 feet down and on the outer surface of giant barrel sponges, scientifically known as Xestospongia testudinaria and pictured above, the study said.

April 27, 2009 - A new study appearing in Restoration Ecology describes a novel technique for reattaching large sponges that have been dislodged from coral reefs. The findings could be generally ...

Other barrel sponges in the area were were not impacted suggesting that it was indeed the touching by divers that led to the sponge’s demise. Through the research of my student Shane Stone and myself, ...

From the cramped conditions inside a school-bus-sized metal tube at the bottom of the ocean, scientist Chris Finelli traded his scuba gear for a T-shirt and bare feet, ready to talk about his ...

Many sponges can survive severe damage and undergo frequent fragmentation, which is considered a mechanism for asexual reproduction. While fragmentation is a commonly utilized reproductive ...

Because A. cauliformis sponges reproduce both asexually via fragmentation and sexually, interactions between these mechanisms may maximize their dispersal efficiency and their likelihood of ...

It is the 2.5 meter (8.2 feet) diameter giant (photo below) that was a tourist attraction for scuba divers visiting Curaçao in the Caribbean in the early 1990s. Unfortunately frequent touching by ...