The Last Creature You’d Expect Left Mysterious Trails on the Ocean Floor
The New York Times
Something with no legs, no feet and no skeleton is crawling around down there, scientists say.
Deep-sea sponges are not known for their mobility. After all, they lack muscles, nervous systems and organs. And forget about fins or feet for traveling the Arctic seafloor. But new research suggests these ancient life-forms can and do, indeed, get around — and far more than marine biologists believed. By studying hundreds of photos and videos of Arctic sponges, scientists from Germany’s Max Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology discovered a vast web of trails several feet long left in the creatures’ roaming wake. “Sponges are one of the most primitive forms of animal life,” said Dr. Teresa Morganti, who led the study published Monday in the journal Current Biology. “At the beginning, we were very skeptical. We thought, ‘That’s not possible. Sponges cannot move.’”More Related News