Sponges
Sponges are organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through them, made up of jelly-like mesophyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cells. Sponges have unspecialized cells that can transform into other types and often migrate between the cell layers and mesohyl in this process. Sponges do not have nervous, digestive or circulatory systems. Instead they rely on maintaining a constant flow of water through their bodies to obtain food, oxygen and remove any waste from food or Carbon Dioxide.
The body of a sponge is a collection of a few different types of cells loosely arranged in a gelatinous matrix called mesohyl. Mesohyl is the connective tissue of a sponge body and it is supported by the skeletal elements. The skeletal elements of sponges are variable and important in taxonomy. Throughout their bodies run canals through which water flows and there is considerable variation in the complexity of these canals. The canals have openings to the outside which are called pores, where the water enters the sponge system these pores are usually small and are called ostia and where the water leaves the sponge system the pores are larger and less numerous called oscula. Most of these canals are lined with special flagellated cells called choanocytes. These choanocytes keep the water flowing through the canals in the correct direction by beating their flagellum and are also important in trapping food.
Most modern sponge species are Leuconoid. In leuconoid sponges the canal system is more complicated with the canals being longer and more branched, they lead to special chambers whose walls are lined by choanocytes, there are no choanocytes in the canals. There is no real spongocoel just a central exit canal leading to the osculum. Leuconoid sponges tend to live in large groups with each individual sponge having its own osculum, however the borders between individual sponges are often hard to define and the sponge may act more like a large communal organism.
Most modern sponge species are Leuconoid. In leuconoid sponges the canal system is more complicated with the canals being longer and more branched, they lead to special chambers whose walls are lined by choanocytes, there are no choanocytes in the canals. There is no real spongocoel just a central exit canal leading to the osculum. Leuconoid sponges tend to live in large groups with each individual sponge having its own osculum, however the borders between individual sponges are often hard to define and the sponge may act more like a large communal organism.
Spongia officinalis
Spongia officinalis, or the bath sponge is the actual sponge that is very common in the Mediterranean and were used as actual "sponges" prior to artificial fabrication. When it is alive it is actually grey in color. Only when the sponge dies does it color. These sponges grow very slowly and it may take as much as 40 years to grow the size of a baseball.
Euplectella aspergillum
The Venus' Flower Basket or Euplectella aspergillum is a hexactinellid sponge in the phylum Porifera inhabiting the deep ocean. This particular sponge was given as a wedding gift because the sponge symbiotically houses two small shrimp, a male and a female, who live out their lives inside the sponge. They breed, and when their offspring are tiny, the offspring escape to find a Venus Flower Basket of their own. The shrimp inside of the basket clean it, and in return, the basket provides food for the shrimp by trapping it in its fiberglass-like strands, and then releasing it into the body of the sponge for the shrimp. It is also speculated that the bioluminescent light of bacteria harnessed by the sponge may attract other small organisms which the shrimp eat. The glassy fibers that attach the sponge to the ocean floor which are 5-20 cm long and thin as human hair, are of interest to fiber optics researchers. The sponge extracts silicic acid from seawater and converts it into silica, then forms it into an elaborate skeleton of glass fibers.
These sponge's skeletons are famous for their stiffness, yield strength and minimal crack propagation. An aluminum tube has 1/100th the stiffness of the Euplectella aspergillum's fibers .
These sponge's skeletons are famous for their stiffness, yield strength and minimal crack propagation. An aluminum tube has 1/100th the stiffness of the Euplectella aspergillum's fibers .
Aplysina archeri
Aplysina archeri, also known as stove-pipe sponge because of its shape) is a species of tube sponge that has long tube-like structures of cylindrical shape. Many tubes are attached to one particular part of the organism. A single tube can grow up to 5 feet high and 3 inches thick. These sponges mostly live in the Atlantic Ocean: the Caribbean, Bahamas, Florida, and Bonaire. They are filter feeders; they eat food such as plankton or suspended detritus as it passes them. Very little is known about their behavioral patterns except for their feeding ecology and reproductive biology. Tubes occur in varying colors including lavender, gray and brown. They reproduce both by asexual and sexual reproduction. When they release their sperms, the sperms float in water and eventually land somewhere where they begin to reproduce cells and grow. These sponges take hundreds of years to grow and never stop growing until they die.
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