April 1, 2021: Carnivorous Sponge
Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2019 Southeastern U.S. Deep-sea Exploration. Download larger version (jpg, 819 KB).
No April Fools’ Day joke here — this is a carnivorous sponge! It was one of two carnivorous demosponges collected from the genus Chondrocladia during Dive 09 of the 2019 Southeastern U.S. Deep-sea Exploration that are possibly new species.
This was an exciting expedition in terms of sponges. Scientists saw, sampled, or collected in their entirety a number of particularly interesting and abundant sponges, some of which may represent new species or range extensions (i.e., known species seen in places they have not been seen before) or have cultural or medical significance.