page_title: List of sponges of Ireland
hierarchical_section_title: List of sponges of Ireland
caption_attribution_description: English: Numbers of sponge species recorded in each of 232 marine ecoregions of the world extracted from the World Porifera Database (available: www.marinespecies.org/porifera, accessed 2011 Aug 31). The type localities and additional confirmed occurrences in neighboring areas of almost all ‘accepted species’ were entered in one or more of the Marine Ecoregions of the World, but many non-original distribution records in the literature are still to be evaluated and entered. Moreover, many sponge taxa are recorded in the literature undetermined and these are not included in the WPD. Thus, the data presented here are to be considered a conservative or ‘minimal’ estimate of the actual distributional data.
context_page_description: There are 290 species of sponges recorded in Ireland, although the true figure is thought to be close to 500; 134 species were recorded off Rathlin Island alone.
  Sponges are animals of the phylum Porifera; sessile aquatic animals without true tissues.
context_section_description: There are 290 species of sponges recorded in Ireland, although the true figure is thought to be close to 500; 134 species were recorded off Rathlin Island alone.
  Sponges are animals of the phylum Porifera; sessile aquatic animals without true tissues.
caption: Numbers of sponge species recorded in each of 232 marine ecoregions of the world. Irish waters are shaded red, indicating the high diversity of sponge species.
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