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This animal is commonly known as sand sponge although it is not a sponge at all. This animal is a compound ascidean composed of many individuals. This animal forms low, rounded colonies on the bottom. A fleshy tunic surrounds the individual zooids. This tunic is heavily infiltrated with sand. The colonies are composed of many individual cauliflower-like lobes each of which represents a zooid system with a common exit opening at the top of the lobe.
Gosner, K.L., A Field Guide to the Atlantic Seashore, 1979, Houghton Mifflin Company Barnes, R.D., Invertebrate Zoology, 1980, Saunders College and Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
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David Remsen
Side view of several lobes of colony. |
David Remsen
Side view of several lobes of colony. More elevated than above photo. |
Gray Slides
Close up showing sand grains in tunic |
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