The deep sea is dark and full of mysteries. Below the water’s surface north of the Hawaiian islands, a remotely operated vehicle has spotted a massive, unknown creature.
The ROV captured footage of the large sponge during a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration deep-sea expedition, and the species was first identified in a study published in the Marine Biodiversity on Thursday.
According to NOAA, the “sponge the size of a minivan, the largest on record,” measured 12 feet long and seven feet wide.
Prior to this discovery, the largest recorded sponge was discovered in shallow waters off western Canada in the late 1800s. It measured about 11 feet long and just over three feet wide.
Besides its girth, the sponge could also be one of the oldest living animals.
Sponges can live for hundreds or thousands of years. “While not much is known about the lifespan of sponges, some massive species found in shallow waters are estimated to live for more than 2,300 years,” the study authors write.
The sponge was discovered last summer in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, a 140,000 square mile marine conservation area.
“Finding such an enormous and presumably old sponge emphasizes how much can be learned from studying deep and pristine environments such as those found in the remote Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument,” Daniel Wagner, Papahanaumokuakea research specialist, said in a statement.
Wagner told New Scientist he estimates it to be around 1,000 years old.
“Sponges don’t have things like growth rings that can be used to estimate age,” Wagner said. “We do know, however, that several coral species that live at those depths can live to multiple hundred to even a few thousand years: the oldest one is 4,500 years.”
Christopher Kelly, NOAA research scientist, said the sponge “just appeared” on the camera, Australia’s Pacific Beat radio reported.
“We were looking for deep water corals and sponges, and we had just gotten some close ups of some corals, then turned away to continue the survey and the sponge appeared out of nowhere,” he told the outlet.
“It looks as though somebody took a blanket and draped it over a chair…,” he said. “So that’s what we called it until we got a better name for it, the folded blanket sponge.”
The sponge wasn’t sampled but a sample was collected nearby from what researchers believe to be the same species.
