When paleontologists picture the earliest animals, they tend to imagine something with at least a rudimentary skeleton: a ...

Picture is copyright Emily S. Damstra and used by permission. Müller and colleagues carefully studied the formation of these giganto-spicules and found formation was helped along the way by silicatein ...

April 26 (UPI) --New research suggests ocean sponges aren't as sedentary as once thought. Recent surveys of the Arctic seabed revealed trails of light brown sponge spicules, needle-like support ...

I worked hard to make sure the post was longer than this image. Within the glass sponges (Hexactinellids), so called because of scaffolds of silica spicules they form, resides a family of sponges, the ...

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 ...

Fibre-optic cables may be an amazing invention showing how clever people can be but it turns out nature got there first. US researchers say a deep-sea sponge with a "skeleton" made out of silica did ...

Imagine a future in which buildings tower miles over the streets below, tourists take day trips to the edge of our atmosphere, and multiple space stations can be spotted drifting across the night sky.

The anchors that hold Venus' flower basket sea sponges to the ocean floor have an internal architecture that increases their ability to bend, according to a new study. Understanding that natural ...