Porifera Collection

Euplectella aspergillum, glass sponge
Bleached skeleton the a deep-water glass sponge (Euplectella aspergillum). This species can be found attached to rocky parts of the sea floor in the western Pacific near the Philippines

Hydnoceras tuberosum, fossil glass sponge
A vase-shaped, fossil glass (silaceous skeleton) sponge from the Devonian of New York

Coeloptychium agaricoides, fossil sponge
This hexactinellid (six rayed spiculed) sponge originates from the Cretaceous of Westphalia, Germany. It has a maximum diameter 8 cm. Sponges are filter feeders and live on plankton

Discodermid sponge
Discodermia lives a sessile life on the seabed around North America and the Caribbean

Metaldetes
A small block of limestone, 5 cm across, from the Cambrian of South Australia, containing sectioned specimens of the archaeocyathan sponge Metaldetes

Drawing labelled Sponge and coral
Drawing by Thomas Malie. Thomas Malie, a surgeon to the Kings Dragoon Guards, sailed to the West Indies during the course of his military service and made detailed drawings of local flora and fauna

Glass sponge probably Euplectella suberea
Drawing made from several damaged specimens collected during The Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger (1872-1876) west of Gibraltar, between Pernambuco & Bahia, S. America

Ventriculites, sponge
A Cretaceous flint broken open to reveal the sponge Ventriculites with a root-like base

Pemmatites, lithistid sponge
This sponge originates from the Permian rocks of the Artic island of Spitzbergen

Drawing labelled Sponge
Drawing by Thomas Malie. Thomas Malie, a surgeon to the Kings Dragoon Guards, sailed to the West Indies during the course of his military service and made detailed drawings of local flora and fauna

Hydnoceras, a hexactinellid sponge
Over 17 cm tall, this natural cast of the hexactinellid sponge Hydnoceras comes from Devonian rocks of New York State

Porosphaera (sponge) necklace
Necklace of Porosphaera beads from the Bronze Age, Higham Marshes, near Rochester, Kent. From the neck of a crouched skeleton in a stone-lined grave

Raphiidonema faringdone, calcareous sponge
A vase-shaped calcareous sponge with numerous small canals from the Cretaceous of Berkshire, England

Poterion patera, Neptunes cup sponge
Neptunes cup sponge specimen on display atthe Natural History Museum at Tring, part of the Natural History museum, London

Meliceritites semiclausa, bryozoan
Branching colony of a fossil cyclostome bryozoan. Specimen originates from the Lower Cretaceous Faringdon Sponge Gravel, Faringdon, Oxfordshire

Bronze Age necklace made of Porosphaera
The fossil sponge Porosphaera can be found within Britains Cretaceous chalk. This necklace of 79 Porosphaera specimens was found around the neck of a skeleton dating back 4

Luffa acutangula, sponge gourd
Illustration from the Botany Library Plate Collection held at the Natural History Museum, London. Original text under illustration reads Cucumis acutangula

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