A group of British ecologist and marine biologists from the John Moores University and Natural History Museum in Liverpool discovered that studying sea sponges can reveal the nature of the fish community that lives close to them. Scientists found DNA fragments of various marine life in the tissues of these creatures. To work published In the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
Sea sponges are found at the bottom of the ocean. They survive by filtering nutrients and oxygen from seawater.
British researchers studied three types of sponges and found that the porous tissues of these organisms preserve the DNA of fish living in a particular area. In this way, sponges act as a living DNA bank that stores information about local biodiversity.
The scientists mapped underwater ecosystems in the North Atlantic Ocean, thanks to the genetic information collected by the sponges. Scientists believe that collecting and analyzing sea sponges could significantly reduce the cost of expensive studies of ocean biodiversity.
Scientists have been able to do this before subtract DNA of ancient plants from 2900 year old clay bricks.