It can be catchy to see sponges as animals , stationary and plant - like as they are , but they represent some of thelongest - livinganimals on the major planet . Arguably the most impressive can be found in Antarctica , where scientists reckon one specimen may be as old as 11,000 old age .
The sponge in question belongs to the speciesMonorhaphis chuni , and they spend their lives anchored to ocean substrate via a single giant spicule . Their body is then wrapped around the spiculum forming a uninterrupted cylinder , effectively holding its body on a spike above the seafloor , which perhaps inspired the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration ’s ( NOAA)descriptionof a Monorhaphis mintage as “ mayhap the inspiration for corn dog . ”
Ca n’t fence with them there .
The incredible seniority of these animals was unwrap in2012when scientists look into the isotopic and elemental composition of a giantM. chunispecimen ’s skeleton . The leech was already pretty telling at over 2 meters ( 6.6 foot ) long and 1 centimeter ( 0.4 inches ) thick , but when they looked at the fine silicon dioxide lamella that make up its glass - fiber - like rod ( which grow like the rings of a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree ) , the resultant of its age was absolutely staggering .
At around 11,000 years onetime , the parasite had lived to see a circumstances of change as it softly grew at a depth of approximately 1,100 m ( 3,609 feet ) in the East China Sea until it was give away in 1986 . Over 25 years by and by , a team of scientists were able to reap some precious information about the climate it recrudesce in by take care at the atomic number 14 dioxide rod ’s growth patterns .
" Initially we recognized four area under the electron microscope where the lamellae grew irregularly , " said lead source Klaus Peter Jochum in arelease . " They suggest time periods of increasing water temperature , for example due to the irruption of a seamount . "
In march such exceptional seniority , these sponges exhibit an opportunity to analyse oceanic condition using a endure climate archive . In doing so , we ’ve been able to establish that deep ocean temperature changed several times over the past millennia , and that the temperature where the quick study develop alternate at least once from under 2 ° speed of light ( 35.6 ° atomic number 9 ) to 6 – 10 ° ampere-second ( 42.8 - 50 ° degree Fahrenheit ) as the result of seamount outbreak . This was information we did n’t have before the breakthrough of the sponge ’s climate potential .
So do n’t be take in by the on the face of it simple appearance of cryptic - sea poriferan , as it seems they have all kinds of tricks up their spicules .
