The Indo-Pacific is the largest marine biogeographical region on Earth and a global center of marine biodiversity.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. A rare chemical indicator suggests sponges may have arrived as the first animals on Earth. A sterol core is primarily composed of ...

A newly identified sponge order, Vilesida, produces sterols linked to the oldest-known animal biomarkers, supporting the idea ...

The Venus flower basket sponge, with its delicate glass-like lattice outer skeleton, has long intrigued researchers seeking to explain how this fragile-seeming creature's body can withstand the harsh ...

SpongeBob SquarePants and his starfish best friend, Patrick Star, aren’t such cartoonish creatures after all. According to an image taken by a marine biologist doing remote deep-sea exploration this ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. New research finds chemical fossils from sponges in rocks over 541 million years old, suggesting animals emerged earlier than once ...

Biological systems are renowned for their ability to create strong yet resilient structures. A sea sponge, for instance, grows in layers, forming unique patterns that integrate minerals with softer ...

A team of MIT geochemists has unearthed new evidence in very old rocks suggesting that some of the first animals on Earth were likely ancestors of the modern sea sponge. Subscribe to our newsletter ...

The deep-sea Venus flower basket sponge can filter feed using only the faint ambient currents of the ocean depths, no pumping required, new research reveals. This discovery of natural 'zero energy' ...