Chondrocladia lyra

Chondrocladia lyra is a meat-eating sea sponge shaped like a candelabra. It was spotted living two miles below the surface of California’s Monterey Bay and features branching limbs covered in velcro-like barbed hooks that help the sponge snare crustaceans as they are swept into its branches by deep-sea currents. 

”We were just amazed. No one had ever seen this animal with their own eyes before,” said Lonny Lundsten, an invertebrate biologist at the Monterey Bay Research Aquarium Institute. 

The team believes the harp sponge evolved this elaborate, candelabra-like structure to increase the surface area it exposes to currents so it can capture more prey.