Who came first – sponges or comb jellies? A new study reaffirms that sponges are the oldest animal phylum – and restores the classical view of early animal evolution, which recent molecular analyses ...

Picture a dolphin diving toward the seafloor with something odd on its nose. It is not a shell or a fish. It is a sea sponge.

Simple animal life may have existed in Earth’s oceans 890 million years ago, according to new research. Recently discovered fossils belonging to ancient sponges might be the earliest known remnants of ...

Discovered 3,600 meters below the Southern Ocean, this carnivorous sponge traps live prey in a first-of-its-kind survival ...

SAN DIEGO, March 20, 2022 — Soft and immobile, sea sponges may appear inert, but these simple animals are rich with chemistry. From them, scientists have uncovered plenty of biologically active ...

Marine heat is rising so fast that a single extra degree could push some of the ocean’s oldest animals past their limit. New work from researchers at the Australian Institute of Marine Science ...