Porifera · sponges
Venus's flower basket
Euplectella aspergillum
Euplectellidae · basket glass spongesIUCN: Not evaluated
A deep-sea glass sponge with a lattice skeleton made of silica.
Fun factA pair of shrimp often lives trapped inside for life, which is why it is a traditional wedding gift in Japan.
- Waters
- Western Pacific
- Depth zone
- Deep sea & continental slope
- Diet
- Bacteria & detritus (filter feeder)
- Size
- Up to 30 cm tall
Classification
Porifera › Hexactinellida › Euplectellidae
- Kingdom Animalia animals
- Many-celled organisms that eat other living things for energy (heterotrophs)
- Cells have no cell walls
- Most can move at some stage of life
- Phylum Porifera sponges
- Body is a porous sac with no true tissues or organs
- Special collar cells (choanocytes) pump water through pores to filter food
- Skeleton made of tiny spikes (spicules) and/or spongy fibers
- Class Hexactinellida glass sponges
- Glass sponges: skeleton of six-rayed silica spikes that can fuse into a rigid lattice
- Body is mostly one continuous fused tissue (syncytium)
- Almost all live in deep, cold water
- Family Euplectellidae basket glass sponges
- Glass sponges with a tube-shaped lattice skeleton
- Often anchored in soft mud by a tuft of long glassy fibers
- Genus Euplectella
- Species in the same genus are very close relatives and often look alike.
- Species Euplectella aspergillum Venus's flower basket