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glass sponge
noun
: any of a class (Hexactinellida synonym Hyalospongiae) of chiefly deep-water siliceous marine sponges with 6-rayed spicules and a skeleton often resembling glass when dried
Examples of glass sponge in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Ethereal white sponge gardens that were thousands of feet long, flying spaghetti monsters (a type of colonial hydrozoan), casper octopuses, thousand-year-old glass sponges and towering forests of bamboo corals made up just a few of the life forms found here.
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Scott Travers, Forbes, 14 Dec. 2024
In the East China Sea, scientists discovered the skeleton of a glass sponge that had lived for some 11,000 years.
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Brian Handwerk, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 Dec. 2024
For example, the deep-sea glass sponge Monorhaphis chuni has been estimated to live over 2,000 years.
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Scott Travers, Forbes, 19 Sep. 2024
Some species of glass sponges can live for thousands of years.
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Scott Travers, Forbes, 19 Sep. 2024
Most notable among them was Charles Wyville Thomson, a Scotsman who in the 1860s hauled up glass sponges, sea spiders, and other curiosities—thus debunking a theory that the deep ocean was lifeless.
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Amy Brady, Scientific American, 20 June 2023
Among a bonanza of fossils, the married duo has cataloged 170 marine species, including glass sponges, crustaceans called horseshoe crab shrimp, and a six-legged arthropod that may have given rise to insects.
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Byscience News Staff, science.org, 4 May 2023
Other critters float around them, including anemones with 8-foot tentacles, rippling squidworms, glass sponges, and ghostly white Dumbo octopuses.
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WIRED, 28 Feb. 2023
Found almost 8,000 feet below the sea’s surface, The E.T. Sponge is a type of glass sponge.
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Allison Futterman, Discover Magazine, 5 Nov. 2021
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Word History
First Known Use
1875, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near glass sponge
Cite this Entry
“Glass sponge.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glass%20sponge. Accessed 26 Feb. 2025.
More from Merriam-Webster on glass sponge
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about glass sponge
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