DiscoverSpeciesOther invertebrates
Venus' flower basket
Euplectella aspergillum
- Usual depth343–1,180 m
- Water temperature8–29 °C
- Best monthsJuly
- How commonRare
About this species
The Venus' flower basket is a species of glass sponge found in the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean, usually at depths below 500 m (1,600 ft). Like other glass sponges, they build their skeletons out of silica, which forms a unique lattice structure consisting of spicules. This body structure is of great interest in materials science as the optical and mechanical properties are in some ways superior to man-made materials. Like other sponges, they feed by filtering sea water to capture plankton and marine snow. Little is known regarding their reproductive habits, though the fluid dynamics of their body structure likely influence reproduction and it is hypothesized that they may be hermaphroditic.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Venus' flower basket”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article
Where and when
Where it has been recorded
Worldwide
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Best months
Worldwide (open data)
- January: 4 records
- February: 0 records
- March: 0 records
- April: 4 records
- May: 1 records
- June: 10 records
- July: 17 records
- August: 0 records
- September: 0 records
- October: 0 records
- November: 4 records
- December: 2 records
Depth and water temperature
Depth
Mostly recorded at 343–1,180 m · Deepest record: 1,290.5 m
Water temperature
Recorded in surface water of 8–29 °C
Names and classification
- English
- Venus' flower basket, Venus's Flower Basket
Names in 3 more languages
- German
- Gießkannenschwamm
- Spanish
- Canasta de flores de Venus
- Japanese
- カイロウドウケツ
Similar species
Sources and credits
Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).
- Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
- Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
- Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
- 129 open-data records from 1837 to 2018.
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