Tuesday, 11 February 2025
-- Advertisement --
dive soft ccr liberty

A species thought to be extinct for over 100 years has been found!

Listen to this article Neptune’s Cup, is an amazing creature. Its occurrence is restricted to the tropical regions of the Indian Ocean. What is this creature? Well, it is one of the largest types of sea sponge. Its height reaches 150cm and its diameter is 80cm. Its name comes from its specific shape, which resembles
Published: November 28, 2011 - 12:07
Updated: July 22, 2023 - 06:39
A species thought to be extinct for over 100 years has been found!
Listen to this article

sponge

Neptune’s Cup, is an amazing creature. Its occurrence is restricted to the tropical regions of the Indian Ocean. What is this creature? Well, it is one of the largest types of sea sponge. Its height reaches 150cm and its diameter is 80cm. Its name comes from its specific shape, which resembles a cup.

-- Advertisement --

For over 100 years, no living representative of this species has been encountered. Until now, when a group of divers came across it off the coast of Singapore to their own astonishment. Although the encountered specimen was small in size, it is still an incredible sensation.

“When we came across this sponge, we immediately knew it was something unusual and completely unprecedented,” said Karenne Tun, a marine biologist with the DHI group.

neptunes-cupasbathtub.568

Neptune’s Cup was first described in 1822. The fully mature and developed sponge was commonly used as… a baby bathtub. Unfortunately, the mass harvesting of sponges has led to the near extinction of this species. The last living specimen was sighted in Indonesian waters in 1908, and since then the species has been thought to be extinct. Single specimens of dead Neptune’s Sponges were found in the 1990s in Australia, so scientists had high hopes that the species had not completely disappeared.

“Very little is known about this creature. There has never been a chance to study a living individual. Now we will have the opportunity to make up for it. It is an amazing and very exciting experience. In fact, we already have the first insights. It was always thought to be a very slow growing species, whereas between our visits in April and August, it grew by a good few cm!” – Tun adds.

Formed over 150million years ago, sponges live on the seabed, feeding on plankton and other small organisms that they can catch by filtering water through their bodies.

Source: mongabay.com
Photo: DHI Group

Other posts
Share:
Facebook
Telegram
LinkedIn
Twitter
Pinterest
WhatsApp

About author

Marcin Pawelczyk
-- Advertisement --
freediving dive insurance dan
-- Advertisement --
Level3 Club CCR Divers24
Recent post
Jared Hires: A Tragic Loss in the Depths of Plura Cave
Operation Ghost Farms to reclaim wasters of western Greece
Żibel’s Environmental Triumphs in 2023
OceanShot and PADI Unveil 2024 Plans
Reinstated Fishing Rights Threaten Divers Amid Malta's Wrecks
Ghost Nets: The Silent and Deadly Threat to Our Oceans
Sharks and plastic – how it affects these magnificent creatures?
You haven't read yet
Meet the Symbios Ecosystem: Your Next-Level Dive Experience
Baltictech 2024 nearly 1000 attendees
DiveXpo 2024: Belgium’s Premier Diving Event for All Levels
Halcyon Dive Systems Announces a Bold New Chapter
Guz Tech Conference 2024 – This Weekend in Plymouth, UK
Introducing Garmin's Descent X50i: A New Era in Tech diving

Search...

The Divers24 portal is currently the largest online medium treating diving in Poland. Since 2010 we have been providing interesting and important information from Poland and around the world on all forms of diving and related activities.

Contact us: info@divers24.com