Even though we know the deep sea is weird, 'carnivorous sea sponges' still sound like something from a sci-fi movie.

Some carnivorous sponges still use the water flow system, while others (like the three newly discovered species) have lost this ability altogether, and nab small crustaceans and other prey using filaments or hooks.

The researchers in this study found three new species of carnivorous sponges - Nullarbora heptaxia, Abyssocladia oxyasters and Lycopodina hystrix, which are also all new genera, as well as a closely related species of sponge that isn't carnivorous, Guitarra davidconryi.

"These new species are the first recorded carnivorous species from South Australia and increase the number of species recorded from around Australia to 25.".

"Over the past two decades, our knowledge of carnivorous sponge diversity has almost doubled," the same team explains in an earlier paper, where they described their discovery of 17 new species of carnivorous sponges