New species of “killer” sea sponges discovered

Apparently some species of sea sponges are carnivorous, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and a local marine biologist has helped discover four new species of these carnivorous sponges.

Scientists first discovered that some sponges are carnivorous about 20 years ago, and since then, only seven such species have been found in all of the northeastern Pacific.

MBARI’s Lonny Lundsten and two Canadian researchers have a new paper out in which they describe four new species of these killer sponges living on the deep seafloor, from the Pacific Northwest to Baja California.