Scientists discovered a 480-million-year-old phosphatic sponge in South China, making it the oldest known stromatoporoid and extending its fossil record by 20 million years. International scientists ...

The discovery of a 480-million-year-old sponge in China has revolutionized scientists’ understanding of early reef ecosystems and biomineralization. As published in the journal PNAS, Chinese ...

In the modern world, all invertebrates with large skeletons of calcium carbonate have symbiotic algae ... Find and sketch a spicule. Does this sponge show evidence of a well-organized skeleton? Is ...

Lophiostroma leizunia is unique among all known sponges for constructing its skeleton using fluorapatite ... group known to utilize all three principal biominerals: silica, calcium carbonate, and ...

Beneath the soft bodies of scleractinian, or stony corals, polyps secrete a calcium carbonate skeleton ... including algae, sponges, and non-reef building corals (e.g., fire corals, soft corals ...