The cloud sponge ''(Aphrocallistes vastus)'' is a species of
sea sponge
Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through th ...
in the class
Hexactinellida
Hexactinellid sponges are sponges with a skeleton made of four- and/or six-pointed siliceous spicules, often referred to as glass sponges. They are usually classified along with other sponges in the phylum Porifera, but some researchers con ...
.
It is a deep-water
reef-forming animal. The species was first described by F.E. Schulze in 1886.
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Description
The cloud sponge takes the form of a large cup with an irregularly folded wall about thick. This is pierced by many pores about wide and covered by a thin dermal membrane. The skeletal elements form a lattice-like structure made up of fused spicules of silica. These mesh together and project into the adjoining canals. There is a fir-tree like concentration of spicules running through the body wall with the branches either having rounded or knobbly ends.
The form of the sponge varies according to the location in which it is found. It often has a mitten-like structure or may be tall and cylindrical or bowl-like but in areas with strong currents can be dense and compact.
Distribution
The cloud sponge is found in the northern Pacific Ocean. Its range includes Japan, Siberia, the Aleutian Islands and the west coast of North America from Alaska southwards to California and Mexico.[ It is a reef-building species found in deep waters on the western Canadian shelf growing on sediment-free rocks. It grows and is more easily studied in fiords off the coast of British Columbia at depths of only .][
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Ecology
The cloud sponge is one of several species of glass sponge that form slow growing reefs in deep water. Their skeletons create habitat for diverse communities of invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
s and fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...
. Its body is primarily made of biogenic silica (>90%) which is of no nutritional value yet dorid nudibranchs (''Diaulula lentiginosa'' and ''Doris odhneri'') have been shown to engorge themselves with cloud sponge.[
]
See also
* Hexactinellid sponges (glass sponges)
* Sponge reef
Sponge reefs are reefs formed by Hexactinellid sponges, which have a skeleton made of silica, and are often referred to as ''glass sponges''. Such reefs are now very rare, and found only in waters off the coast of British Columbia, Washington ( ...
* Sponge Reef Project
The Sponge Reef Project is a binational scientific project between Germany and Canada to study the sponge reefs off British Columbia, Canada, reefs formed by sponges of the Hexactinellid family.
The project was started in 1999, following the dis ...
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2195904
Hexactinellida