#4980 · 🪼 jellyfish, starfish, worms & co
Gold Sponge
🇳🇱 Gouden spons ·Aplysina aerophoba
🪼 Jellyfish, starfish, worms & co 📍 in Europe, not in NL
8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
- 1. © sebastien_lecomte · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 2. © Bernat Espigulé · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 3. © Dennis Rabeling · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- 4. © Jean-Paul Cassez · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 5. © Dean Zagorac · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 6. © continuumcompost · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 7. © Warren R. Francis · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 8. © Falk Viczian Solarboot-Projekte gGmbH · CC BY-NC 4.0
what is it?
Aplysina aerophoba is a species of sponge in the family Aplysinidae. It is a yellow, tube-forming or encrusting sponge and is native to the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea; the type locality is the Adriatic Sea.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 3,917 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Giovan Domenico Nardo in 1833 (193 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Gold Sponge
- Nederlands
- Gouden spons
- scientific name
- Aplysina aerophoba
- class
- Demospongiae
- order
- Verongiida
- family
- Aplysinidae
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings in Europe
- 3,033
- sightings worldwide
- 3,917
- GBIF records in NL
- 0
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1833 by Giovan Domenico Nardo
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 326154, Wikidata Q139182, GBIF 2239334, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.