She has a name that resembles sweet melodies, but in reality she is a very skilled carnivore. It is Chondrocladia lyra, a sponge recently discovered in the deep ocean waters off California by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, which has been called "harp sponge" because of its structure, which looks just like this instrument or a lyre resting on a side.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
: the new carnivorous sponge that looks like a harp
It has a name that resembles sweet melodies, but in reality it is a 'highly skilled carnivore. And the Chondrocladia lyra, a sponge recently discovered in the deep ocean waters off California by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, which has been named "sponge harp”Because of its structure, which looks exactly like this instrument or a lyre resting on its side.
Anchored to the muddy sediment through rhizoids, filamentous structures used precisely for anchoring to the substrate on which it lives, the harp sponge catch tiny animals which are carried among its dangerous branches by the currents of the deep waters. Sponges generally have a diet based on bacteria and fragments of organic material that filter through their body. But the harp sponge is not. Once the prey falls into its clutches, it wraps it in a thin membrane and then slowly begins to digest it.
Using the institute's two Rov (Remotely Operated Vehicles), Tiburon and Ricketts Doc, the researchers collected two sponges and made video observations of ten others, concluding that the sponge evolved into this elaborate candlestick in order to increase the surface exposed to currents, just like the sea gorgonians. The harp sponge's unusual shape and exposure to currents can also help it reproduce more effectively. The balls that are located at the tip of the vertical branches of the sponge, in fact, produce packages of sperm, which are released when currents pass and captured by the branches of other sponges nearby.
“We were really amazed. No one had ever seen this animal with their own eyes before, ”said Lonny Lundsten, one of the first biologists to see the stunning and beautiful harp sponge. “The deepest sea floor can be a very inhospitable place. It is cold, dark and resources are often scarce ", explains a note from the Institute, and the harp sponge, one of dozens of new carnivorous species discovered by biologists in the last 20 years, is an extraordinary example. adaptation to extreme situations many animals are forced to survive in such a hostile environment.
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