Degnan said because sponges and humans came from the same ancestor, any common features must have survived about 600 million years of evolution.

'Any features that we find in sponges and in humans, we can infer they existed before sponges and humans went their separate ways on the tree of life,' he said.

'The fact that these common features exist in sponges and humans must tell us that they're really important because these things split apart 600 million years ago and the features are still here.

'For example nearly 95 percent of all genes associated with human disease can be found in sponges,' Degnan said.

He also added that influencing the direction of stem cell research was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the abilities sea sponges possessed.