Jurassic Park Submerged
Sponge Reefs Mysteriously Appear From Another Time
In 1987, Canadian scientists inadvertently mapped four large glass sponge reefs off the B.C. coast. They were hidden in the dark depths of Hecate Strait. It was a shocking find. Although the world's oceans still support individual glass sponges, no one even considered that living reefs would ever be seen again. They were thought to have gone extinct 30 million years ago. So how did these "living fossils" survive in B.C.?
Will we ever know all their secrets?
The find – living fossils
| Map of Sponge Reefs |
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How do they build reefs? The new sponges attach themselves to the skeletons of dead sponges, over and over again. The resulting reef looms upward from the seabed as a fantastic and massive lattice-type construction. In some places, amongst the recently found Hecate Strait reefs, these sponge constructions rise as high as an eight-story building. They also spread liberally across the seafloor. The four largest sponge reefs in B.C. extend a combined 1,000 square kilometres, or about twice the size of Greater Victoria.
(Is that big? Well, it's smaller than the largest dinosaur-era sponge reef that spanned 7,000 kilometres – the largest biotic structure in the history of the world. But B.C.'s sponge reefs, at 1,000 square kilometres, still compare with the planet's largest existing reef – Australia's Great Barrier Reef of corals – that extends 2,000 kilometres.)
| Sponges underwater |
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From prehistoric to present day: a mystery for the ages
Today, much of these newly-discovered Hecate Strait sponge reefs exist at the bottom of the pitch-black sea. It's easy to understand why humans missed them. Ocean research is expensive and the area wasn't mapped until 1987.
They are considered "living fossils" and a window into the oceanic world of the late Jurassic period. Although B.C.'s sponge reefs haven't existed since the dinosaurs – they only date back 9,000 years – their prehistoric structure provides a glimpse into another world.
What secrets can B.C.'s sponges reveal about the time when dinosaurs ruled the Earth and birds learned to fly? That's a mystery for paleontologists to probe into the future.
The more immediate mystery for sponge scientists is why the reef-building took place in British Columbia. What is it about B.C. waters that proved so alluring to these fragile glass sponges?
The scientists say they have the answer. This mystery is solved.
>> More Clues