PROF. DENDY'S memoir (in Acta Zoologica, 1921, pp. 95-152, 50 figures) on the evolution of the tetraxonid sponge-spicule will appeal equally to those interested in problems of evolution or in ...

Many corals and sponges form skeletons that support and shape their bodies. Whereas biomineralization—the formation of these skeletons—has been intensively studied in corals, the main ecosystem ...

With their rigid structures and lack of appendages, sponges can seem more like plants or fungi than the animals that they are. Long assumed to be basically immobile, sponges have been spotted leaving ...

The other deeplings (except RickMac) are at the fantastic Science Online conference this week, meeting with other scientist communicators and hatching various plots for DSN’s ascendancy to world ...

Sponges are animals that do incredible impressions of inanimate objects. They have no nervous, digestive, or circulatory systems. They have no symmetry—no left or right, no front or back. And their ...

Researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on September 17 have found that sponges build their skeletons in a completely different way than other animals do. In fact, the building ...

The Venus' flower basket sea sponge has hair-like appendages that hold it in place on the sea floor. Researchers show that the internal structure of those fibers is fine-tuned for strength. The ...

Scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) in Germany have created a new synthetic hybrid material with a mineral content of ...

Sponges build their skeletons in a completely different way than other animals do, researchers have found. In fact, the building process looks a lot like the construction of human-made buildings, ...