- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Porifera
- Class: Demospongiae
- Order: Halichondrida
- Family: Axinellidae
- Scientific name: Phakellia ventilabrum
- Norwegian: -
Characteristics:
This is a cup or fan-shaped sponge with a grey or pale brown color. A pattern of veins are radiating from the stem towards the rim of the fan. The fan may reach a diameter of 50 cm alltough it rarely get thicker than 5-10 mm.
Habitat:
It prefers current exposed locations, deeper than 20 meters. It stands transverse to the dominating current direction to optimize the catch of small organisms flowing by.
Distribution:
P. ventilabrum is well known along the Atlantic coasts of Europe, all the way to the Artic.