An underwater jurassic park
Giant fossil cliffs in Germany. Photo: Sabine Jessen
While dinosaurs roamed the earth, huge glass sponge reefs thrived in prehistoric seas. The reefs were thought have gone extinct about 40 million years ago, leaving only giant fossil cliffs behind that stretch across parts of Portugal, Spain and France and Germany across Eastern Europe to Romania. That was until 1987 when a team of Canadian scientists discovered 9,000 year-old living glass sponge reefs on British Columbia’s north coast.
Photo credit: Sally Leys/Miriam O/ROPOS