Venus' flower basket

Venus' flower basket
Group of Venus' flower baskets
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Porifera
Class: Hexactinellida
Order: Lyssacinosida
Family: Euplectellidae
Genus: Euplectella
Species:
E. aspergillum
Binomial name
Euplectella aspergillum
Owen, 1841

The Venus' flower basket (Euplectella aspergillum) is a glass sponge in the phylum Porifera. It is a marine sponge found in the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean, usually at depths below 500 m (1,600 ft). Like other sponges, they feed by filtering sea water to capture plankton and marine snow.[1] Similar to other glass sponges, they build their skeletons out of silica, which forms a unique lattice structure of spicules. The sponges are usually between 10 cm (3.9 in) and 30 cm (12 in) tall, and their bodies act as refuge for their mutualist shrimp partners. This body structure is of great interest in materials science as the optical[2] and mechanical[3] properties are in some ways superior to man-made materials. Little is known regarding their reproduction habits, however fluid dynamics of their body structure likely influence reproduction and it is hypothesized that they may be hermaphroditic.[4]

Collected specimen of Euplectella aspergillum
  1. ^ "Are glass sponges made of glass? : Ocean Exploration Facts: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research". oceanexplorer.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2022-04-11.
  2. ^ Keable, Stephen (4 April 2022). "Deepsea Glass Sponge". Australian Museum.
  3. ^ "Secrets of the Venus' Flower Basket" (PDF).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Soares was invoked but never defined (see the help page).