Antje Boetius, who works together with deep-sea biologist Dr Autun Purser from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in the HGF-MPG Joint Research Group for Deep-Sea Ecology and Technology. "There are no strong currents in the Arctic deep sea that could explain the structures found on the sea floor," explains expedition leader Prof. This is particularly exciting because science had previously assumed that most sponges are attached to the seafloor or are passively moved by ocean currents and, usually down slopes. "We conclude from this that the sponges might actively move across the sea floor and leave these traces as a result of their movement," reports Dr Teresa Morganti, sponge expert from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen. These trails were observed to run in all directions, including uphill. The surprise was great when researchers looked at high-resolution images of the sea floor of the Arctic deep sea in detail: Path-like tracks across the sediments ended where sponges were located.
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