Rhabdastrella globostellata, also known as yellow pot sponge, is a marine

Marine (ocean)

Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...

 sponge of the order Astrophorida

Astrophorida

Astrophorida is an order of sea sponges under the class Demospongiae.Some of the members of this order are known to be eaten by hawksbill turtles....

. It is native to many regions of the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

 including the shores of Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

, the Seychelles

Seychelles

Seychelles , officially the Republic of Seychelles , is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar....

, and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 as well as the Malayan Peninsula and Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

. It was first described by Henry J. Carter

Henry John Carter

Henry John Carter, FRS was a surgeon working in Bombay, India, who carried out work in geology and zoology. He worked as an army surgeon in Bombay from 1859 on Her Majesty's Indian Service, Bombay Establishment. He edited a collection of geological papers on Western India, including a summary of...

 as Stelleta globostellata in 1883, named after the globostellate shape of its spicules

Sponge spicule

Spicules are structural elements found in most sponges. They provide structural support and deter predators. Large spicules, visible to the naked eye are referred to as megascleres, while smaller, microscopic ones are termed microscleres.- Structure :...

 (Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 globus meaning "sphere" and stellātus meaning "star-shaped").

R. globostellata has been shown to produce a wide variety of isomalabaricanes, a type of triterpene

Triterpene

Triterpenes are terpenes consisting of six isoprene units and have the molecular formula C30H48.The pentacyclic triterpenes can be classified into lupane, oleanane or ursane groups.Animal- and plant-derived triterpenes exist, such as:*squalene...

 molecules with notable cytotoxic

Cytotoxicity

Cytotoxicity is the quality of being toxic to cells. Examples of toxic agents are a chemical substance, an immune cell or some types of venom .-Cell physiology:...

 activity towards certain cancer cell lines

Cell culture

Cell culture is the complex process by which cells are grown under controlled conditions. In practice, the term "cell culture" has come to refer to the culturing of cells derived from singlecellular eukaryotes, especially animal cells. However, there are also cultures of plants, fungi and microbes,...

.