Marine study in Singapore digs up 100 species

Some are new to the island or to science; project one-third done

By Grace Chua

Burrowed deep into the mudflats of Lim Chu Kang is a bumpy, warty sea anemone so new to science, it does not even have a scientific name yet.

Its finders have fondly nicknamed it Bill.

It is one of the new findings scientists have made, just a year into the most comprehensive study of marine life here.

In the first phase of the three-year Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey, researchers looking at coastal mudflat and intertidal areas have already found a hundred species, some of which are new for Singapore or new to science altogether.

Continued:  http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_760850.html

Amazing Neptune’s Cup Sponge Rediscovered in Singapore

By John R. Platt
More than 100 years after it was last seen, the giant Neptune’s cup sponge (Cliona patera) has been rediscovered off the coast of southern Singapore.

First discovered in 1822, the sponges grew so large—a meter or more in both height and diameter—that their cup-like structures were sometimes used as tubs for babies. But their size made them valuable to collectors around the world and they were overharvested until they disappeared from Singapore in the 1870s. The last time living sponges were seen was 1908, when collectors found some in West Java, Indonesia. The species was then thought to be extinct.

But in the 1990s, a few dead Neptune’s cup sponges turned near Australia, giving researchers hope that they might find these massive Porifera again in the oceans around Singapore.

And now that hope has been met: Two living Neptune’s cup sponges have been found near Singapore’s St. John’s Island. The first specimen was found in March by biologists with the environmental engineering firm DHI Water & Environment (S) Pte Ltd. A second sponge was found 50 meters away.

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