''Aaptos kanuux'' is a species of

sea sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t ...

belonging to the family

Suberitidae Suberitidae is a family of sea sponges belonging to the order Suberitida. Genera *Suberites *Homaxinella *Rhizaxinella *Caulospongia *Pseudospongosorites *Aaptos ... References

Suberitidae, Sponge families {{demosponge-stub ...

. It is named after the Unangan/ Aleutian word for

heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide t ...

Discovery

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

announced the discovery on April 28, 2008. It was discovered in the summer of 2007 while investigating deep sea canyons of the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea (, ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Ameri ...

. Kenneth Lowyck discovered the new species while exploring the bottom of the canyon in a

DeepWorker 2000 DeepWorker 2000 is a submarine vehicle developed by Nuytco Research, Ltd. It is capable of descending to a depth of 610 m (2001 ft) and remaining submerged for 12 hours. In 1999, it was deployed to the continental shelf and upper conti ...

DSV. George Pletnikoff, Greenpeace Alaska Ocean's Campaigner and an Aleut/Unangan from St. George Island was given the honor of naming the sponge and subsequently chose the Aleut/Unangan word for heart.

References

Aaptos Animals described in 2008 {{demosponge-stub