Mystery sponge
Collection of the sponge in Mashpee, MA A few weeks ago, I got an email from a Natural Resource Officer in the neighboring town, Mashpee, with a request for assistance identifying a marine sponge. Messages like this show up every once in a while. When you work at "The Oceanographic" (as many people in town call it), the local community rightly assumes they can come to you for expertise. I love helping out. For all of the times in my career that I've had to ask others for help identifying species , I take great pleasure in helping others with their specimens. Identifying species is always easier if you have a physical specimen , so that was my first question for the officer: " Do you have a sample ?" Two days later, a sponge appeared in my lab refrigerator. My first step was a dissection. Sponges have skeletal elements called spicules. They're small pieces of silica or calcium carbonate that help the sponge hold its shape, and they're absolutely es