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Proactive disclosure Print version   | |  Sponge Reefs on the continental shelf
Sponge Reefs on the continental shelf: A joint project between the Pacific Geoscience Centre and the University of Stuttgart. Background Information Sponge Reefs Shelf Sponge Reefs: A Seafloor Jurassic Park Some background information
Sponges are animals that filter water through their porous body surface to extract
food particles and dissolved substances. They are not mobile but stay their
whole adult lives in one place much like a plant. There are more than 7,000
described species of sponges alive today in both fresh and marine waters
and many more that remain to be described and named by scientists. Different
groups of sponges make their spicules that form the sponge's skeleton out
of different materials. These materials may include silica, carbonate and
protein fibres. Sponges have been traditionally harvested in various places
in the world as the well known "bath sponge" and increasingly
are becoming important sources of bioactive agents for the pharmaceutical
industry.
Sponges are among the oldest known multicellular animals, sponge spicules have
been found in Precambrian rock layers more than 600 million years old.
From this perspective they are a very successful group having lived on
earth through many crises and extinctions. The sponges that make spicules
from silica include the Hexactinellids and Lithistids. In offshore British
Columbia, as in many places on our watery planet, Hexactinellid sponges
have been quite successful at making a living and are quite common.
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