Venus' Flower Basket

Venus' flower basket is a deep-sea glass sponge whose skeleton is built from a lattice of silica spicules fused into a cylindrical, intricately woven structure resembling a woven basket or vase. It lives anchored to the seafloor at depths of several hundred meters, mainly in the western Pacific, where it filters bacteria and other tiny particles from the surrounding water. Its skeleton is well known for often housing a permanent pair of small shrimp that enter as juveniles and grow too large to leave, a partnership long used in Japan as a wedding gift symbolizing lifelong union.