This beautiful organism is a sponge. Sponges are some of the simplest animals. They have the remarkable ability to reform themselves after being pushed through a sieve. Sponges are filter feeders and their diet comprises tiny organisms and detritus filtered from the water they inhabit.
The flower basket sponge has a skeleton formed from silica – the main ingredient of glass. The group to which the Venus’ flower basket belongs is called the glass sponges. You might imagine that the structure would be very fragile, but far from it. Architects and engineers have long used building and bridge designs inspired by this animal, including skyscrapers such as The Gherkin in London: https://tinyurl.com/biomimetic-gherkin.
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