#holophagus

Before the evolution of today's array of colonial corals, ancient reefs were built by sponges. Glass sponges and other species with ridgid inner skeletons grew over eachother to form towering structures, and provided shelter for fish, cephalopods, and other denizens of the deep. Similar sponge reefs are now restricted to the dark waters off the coast of British Columbia and the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. In this detail of a much larger painting on my easel at the moment, a group of squid-like #belemnites and a lone #holophagus seek the saftey of some sponges in response to an approaching threat. #scientificillustration #paleoart #prehistoric #Jurassic #ocean #painting #sponge #reef