The newly discovered glass sponge called Advhena magnifica lives on the Pacific Ocean. It was first collected in 2016 by the Okeanos Explorer research vessel of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) near the Mariana Trench.

The researchers were surprised to see a spooky shape of glass sponges with two eye-holes.

Living at a depth where light hardly reaches, glass sponges have no vision and lack the central nervous system to process the information the eye can provide. Instead, these are large openings to the outside, through which the sponges push water out after it is sucked in through smaller holes with food particles removed in a grid.

By scanning electron microscopy images, Branco researchers realized A. Magnifica was not a Bolosoma sponge.

We know very little about A. Magnifica’s position in its deep sea ecosystem, but sponges, like corals, provide habitat for other species, creating places where they grow. biological hotspots.

In addition, in addition to A. Magnifica, the study described two new species, Euplectella sanctipauli and Bolosoma perezi, discovered in the South Atlantic. It is noteworthy that Bolosoma sponges have never been reported in the Atlantic.

Most sponges live at a depth of 450-900 meters but A. magnifica has been collected at depths of up to 2,028 meters and E. Sanctuarytipauli is nearly double that number.