Interesting facts about sponges. Sponge Type

We present to you interesting facts about sea sponges

The famous “loofah”, which we use every day for bathing, got its name precisely because of this sea creature. Most of them are suitable exclusively for these purposes.

Thanks to numerous studies carried out on these creatures, it was revealed that they belong to the underwater world of animals. Before the village, they were called zoophytes - a kind of transitional stage between plants and animals.

Sponges live large families, each of them is a single-celled representative. Therefore, they can only be seen as a single “society”, consisting of 5-12 such individuals.

Depending on what kind of skeleton sponges have, they are divided into three classes: calcareous, glass and ordinary. The photo below shows glass ones.

Did you know that sponges were very popular in medicine in ancient times? So, they could be used as a gauze mask and stop bleeding.

Did you know that it is these animals that determine how clean the pond is?

In the depths of the water, they do a good deed - they pass it through themselves, leaving all the lime inside their body.

Do you know how many sponges go into production? modern world? More than 300 thousand tons. Of these marine organisms In addition to washcloths for swimming and saunas, they also produce helmets and padding material for construction.

In America, about 95% of 100% use sponges in car washes.

Did you know that sponges love to eat well? On average, they eat about 2/3 of their own body weight.

Did you know that the first drug that was created to treat cancer, cytosine arabinoside, was extracted from the body of these animals?

By the way, in the absence of blood circulation, digestion, nervous system and whole organs in general, sponges can sneeze.

IN deep waters Ocean sponges can live for about 200 years. But only if they are not eaten by dolphins - for these animals, sponges play the role of “preventive treatment” against dirt and bacteria in their stomach.

A sea sponge is neither a plant nor a coral. This is an animal. The sea sponge is not a very complex organism - it does not have a central nervous system, it has no brain, no blood circulation, no digestion, and no integral organs in general.

The ancient Greeks gave sea sponges the name "Zoofitan" - a rare, unique category marine species— literally means “half plant/half animal.”

Sea sponges live on the seabed. They don't move. These underwater inhabitants seas attach to a solid surface and live in one place permanently.

Some types of sponges are found in freshwater lakes and rivers, the so-called “badyagi” sponges. But freshwater sponges are not suitable for commercial use.

Sea Sponges thrive in a wide variety of climatic conditions- from tropical to polar - it can survive in all latitudes - from intertidal zones to the deepest areas of the sea, including in underwater sea caves where there is no light at all.

However, the most high quality noted in Mediterranean sponges, Aegean Sea and Red.

Sea sponges are able to regulate the amount of water allowed through their bodies by narrowing their openings. They actively filter the flow of water passing through their structures by the continuous beating of thousands of tiny flagella in their pores.

Sea Sponges pump 200,000 times their own body volume of water every day.

Sponges are the “filter feeders” of the sea. How clean the pool will be depends on the sea sponge.

The sea sponge looks dark underwater. The body is covered with dark membranes. The function of these dark membranes is to protect internal skeleton. They act like skin for the body.

Sea sponges reproduce by budding. The sponge is able to catch sperm floating nearby. She uses it to fertilize eggs. Tiny larvae then emerge as a result of fertilization. Then these larvae in the ocean grow into sponges.

The sponges often remain attached to each other indefinitely with each new growth cycle. Sponges live in a “society”.

The main diet of the sea sponge is organic particles and plankton. They filter the ocean to get food. Flowing water gives sponges nutrients and oxygen. Sponges love to eat well. On average, they eat 2/3 of their own body weight.

It's surprising to know that some sea sponges are carnivores. They eat crustaceans and small sea animals.

The body of a sea sponge contains tiny pores that create filtration.

Scientists have identified about 5,000 species of sea sponges in the world. Only 7 species are marketed, and only 12 species are harvested for commercial use. The sponge has a luxurious soft porous structure.

The sea sponge has an excellent regeneration process. They easily repair (restore) broken pieces and damaged parts of their body. They can grow in the same place, like mushrooms. In addition, they have the ability to regenerate into new individual sponges even from the smallest fragments of the original.

Sea sponge collectors (divers), when collecting sea sponge, make sure that the roots (bases) of the sea sponge remain. This gives the sea sponge a chance to regenerate. If you take the root, the sponge dies.

When harvesting, specially designed hooks or knives are used so as not to disrupt the natural processes of sponge reproduction.

If you think that collecting sea sponges is bad, then you are wrong. Sea sponges can be up to 150 years old if they are not collected from time to time. If sea sponges are not harvested, they lose their ability to regenerate over time. Only a short life expectancy of 10-20 years is optimal for them.

Studies have shown that in those areas where there is actually a constant process of sponge harvesting, there is an increase in their population density. The cut and regrows sponge will grow over several years to become larger and healthier than it was originally.

It is said that dolphins and sea turtles They readily eat sponges. Sea sponges act as dirt and bacteria scavengers for their stomachs.

Kalymnos - greek island, where they traditionally fish for sponges.

In America, sponges are used in car washes as washcloths in 95 cases out of a hundred.

Sponges can be used as a gauze dressing for bleeding.
This is an excellent personal hygiene product and a wonderful cosmetic product.
In addition to washcloths for swimming and saunas, padding material is made from sea sponge.

Scientists have discovered that some of chemicals, which are used by sponges to deter predators, may have potential for treating cancer and HIV.

The first drug for treating cancer, cytosine arabinoside, was extracted from the body of a sea sponge.

Natural sea sponge has been important to society in terms of hygiene for many centuries. Before the advent of synthetic products and artificial detergents, natural sea sponges were used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.

The underwater world is so diverse and unique that sometimes it is even difficult to distinguish plants from animals. The creatures living there have such bizarre shapes. Large sea giants and very microscopic planktonic crustaceans, colorful and bright, predators and herbivores - an insane variety of species of living organisms. One of these amazing creatures and these are the sponges, which will be discussed further.

General information

The position of these animals can be characterized as follows:

empire - Cellular;
kingdom - Animals;
subkingdom - Multicellular;
type - Sponges.

Today it is known that there are about 8 thousand species. 300 of them inhabit the vast seas of our country.

Classification

The Sponge type unites all known representatives into four large classes.

Calcarea, or Calcareous. Formed in the form of deposited calcium salts.
Ordinary, or Siliceous. The main representative is the badyaga.
Glass (Six-beam). The class size is small.
Corals are a very species-poor class.

All of these sponges have their own characteristics, not only external, but also internal structure, lifestyle and economic significance in human life.

External structure

Perhaps the most unusual thing in all the characteristics of the animals in question will be their external appearance. Peculiarities external structure sponges are defined by the variety of body shapes that characterize them. So, representatives of different classes can be in the form:

glasses;
bowls;
tree structure.

The symmetry of the body in single forms is multipolar axial, while in colonial forms it is mixed. Each individual has a special flat sole, with which it is attached to the bottom or other substrate. Sponges most often lead a sedentary lifestyle.

On the upper side of the body there is a special opening called the “osculum”. It serves to remove excess water from the internal cavity. The outside of the body is covered with a layer of cells called pinacoderm. They resemble in their structure the epithelial tissue of higher animals.

However, they also have distinctive features- presence of wide pores. The structure of the sponge provides for the absorption of food particles not through the upper hole, but through numerous perforations penetrating the entire body, capable of contracting and expanding.

Under the outer layer there are two more, which we will consider in more detail later. The color range of both single and colonial forms is quite diverse. The following types of coloring are available:

gray;
green;
purple;
yellow;
white;
red;
brown;
mixed.

Sponge type is very enlivening underwater world, making it even more bright, colorful and attractive. Moreover, if we consider an individual individual on the surface of land, it will have a very unattractive appearance: a brownish, slippery lump reminiscent of raw liver, emitting a not entirely pleasant aroma.

Internal structure of representatives

The types of structure of sponges are similar, whether it is a single individual or attached to a colony. Immediately under the dermal outer layer of porous cells there is a special intercellular substance that forms a fairly voluminous membrane. In it, the cells are loosely located, and their shape is different. The tissue is somewhat reminiscent of adipose tissue in higher terrestrial representatives. This structure is called "mesohyl".

Under this layer there is an internal cavity lined with a special row of cells. This is the gastric layer. All food ends up here, and this is where digestion takes place. All waste products, along with excess water, are directed to the upper opening of the body and discharged out through it.

Also, the structure of a sponge necessarily includes a kind of skeleton. It is formed from calcareous, phosphorus, and organic salts, which are produced in special mesohyl cells. It not only gives the sponges a certain body shape, but is also important for the safety of the internal cavity from mechanical damage.

Characteristics of the Sponge type will be incomplete if you do not indicate main feature these animals - their body does not have tissues, but only includes layers that are different in shape and form. This is the main difference between the animals in question and all others.

The aquifer system of the individuals is also interesting. It may not be the same for different classes. In total, there are three main types:

Askon - all messages from external environment carried out through a system of tubes through which water moves into special chamber cells. The most simplified aquifer system, found in only a few representatives.
Sicon. A more advanced system that includes a network of branched tubules and tubes flowing into special chamber cells with flagella.
Laycon is a whole network of osculums, this type The aquifer system is characteristic only of colonial forms. The most complicated option compared to all the previous ones.

Reproduction in sponges occurs both sexually and asexually. Germ cells are formed in the mesochyl layer. Then the products come out through the pores of the body and, with a stream of water, enter the bodies of other sponges, where fertilization occurs. As a result, a zygote is formed, giving rise to a larva. The fry can be called differently: amphiblastula, parenchymulus, celloblastula.

If we talk about it, it is based on the process of budding, that is, detachment with subsequent regeneration of missing structures. Most of the Sponge type includes hermaphroditic animals.

Lifestyle Features

If we consider all the diversity of multicellular animals in the world, then sponges should be classified as the most primitive stage in organization. However, these are also the most ancient animals, appearing many thousands of years ago. During their evolution, little has changed in their organization; they retain their characteristics over time. The life form of representatives has two manifestations:

single;
colonial.

Most often, massive accumulations of sponges are found among coral reefs. Meet as freshwater species(they are a minority), and the oceans (the overwhelming group in terms of the number of species).

The Sponge type includes animals that feed on small organisms or their remains. Their body structure contains special collar cells with flagella. They just capture floating food particles, directing them into the internal paragastric cavity of the body. Digestion takes place inside cells.

Based on their method of obtaining food, sponges can be called passive hunters. They lazily sit on an attached place, waiting for passing nutrient particles. And only when they are already very close, they capture them through the pores and direct them, along with the flow of water, into the body.

Some species are able to move, despite the fact that they still have a sole for attachment to the substrate. However, their speed is so low that during the whole day an individual is unlikely to move further than a meter.

Variety of sponges

Quite impressive for such primitive representatives - after all, there are about 8 thousand species! And according to some modern data, this figure is already close to 9 thousand. External diversity is explained by differences in body shape, skeletal types and body colors of individuals (or colonies).

Class Glass sponges

Glass sponges are very interesting in their external diversity. They are not as numerous as others, but have an unusual skeleton. These are one of the largest individuals that the Sponge type includes. General characteristics representatives of this class can be expressed in several points.

The Latin name of the class is Hexactinellida.
The skeleton is formed from silicon compounds and is therefore very durable.
Needle-type body support, in which six-pointed structures predominate.
Larvae of the parenchymula or coeloblastula species.
Leukon-type aquifer system.
More often colonial than solitary forms.
Sometimes up to 50 cm in height.

The most common representatives are:

Hyalonema siboldi;
euplectella.

Class Ordinary, or Siliceous, sponges

The Sponge type, photos of whose representatives can be seen in this article, also includes the most numerous class in terms of the number of individuals - Siliceous, or Common. They got their name for the peculiarities in the structure of the skeleton - it consists of silica and spongin. In terms of hardness, it is quite delicate and easily destroyed. The shape of the skeleton needles is very diverse:

stars;
anchors;
maces;
sharp needles and so on.

The most common freshwater representative is badyaga - a sponge used as an indicator of the cleanliness of a reservoir. Outwardly unattractive, the color is brownish-brown, sometimes dirty yellow. They are used by humans for various needs.

What other representatives are found among common sponges?

Mixils.
Sea loaf.
Baikal sponge.
Sea brushes.
Giant chondrocladia and others.

Class Lime sponges

This includes representatives that have a durable and beautiful calcareous skeleton. They live only in seas and oceans. The color is pale or completely absent. Skeletal spines may have about three rays. Main representatives: Ascona, Sycona, Leucandra.

Class Coral sponges

The fewest representatives that look like coral branches. This happens due to the formation of a powerful calcareous skeleton of different colors and patterned structure.

Representatives: Nicholson's geratoporella, merlia. In total, only six species of such animals have been described. For a long time they were not distinguished from the coral reef system, so they were discovered relatively recently.

Human use of sponges

The economic importance of individuals belonging to the Sponge type is also important. Representatives are used for the following needs:

Are participants food chain, since they themselves serve as food for many animals.
They are used by people to make beautiful jewelry for the body and home interior.
They contain substances that allow them to be used for medical purposes (the bodyaga sponge has a bruise-absorbing and wound-healing effect).
Used to create sanitary sponges - natural natural products for the cosmetics industry.
Used for technical and other purposes.

Sponges- animals, but they are more like some kind of plants than animals. They grow on underwater objects such as rocks or plant stems. These creatures cannot move, although some species are able to shrink if touched. They do not have eyes, ears, brain and nerves, heart and blood. But they catch their food by filtering water that enters them through thousands of tiny holes and exits from one large one called an estuary. Adult sponges are attached to the substrate, but their larvae are capable of active swimming. The larvae find a suitable location, descend and grow into an adult colony of cells, which we call a sponge.

Small ones grow around the mouth of the sponge - the main outlet for water. Branched channels are visible inside the sponge.
Various types of cup sponges grow in fresh and salt water.
Sponge sea loaf May be different colors, including green. The hymenial sponge is usually blood red. Some Solenia sponges are also red in color. Columnar sponges can be purple or blue. The Callispongia sponge is quite wide, with one mouth. Brain sponges are pink.

A typical formed sponge is not one individual, but more often it is a colony. The sponge cells form a flask-shaped body around a central cavity. The walls of the body are pierced by many tiny holes and channels leading from the external openings into the internal cavity. The flagella of the cells lining the canals create a flow of water in them, directed into the central cavity. Water brings with it tiny particles of food - protozoa, pieces of algae, eggs and larvae. Water and undigested residues exit through the orifice, a large opening usually located at the top of the sponge.

Purely!
In an hour, a large sponge can filter a volume of water equal to the volume of the bath. Sponges are indispensable components aquatic ecosystems containing clean water.

Toilet sponges.
Nowadays, most sponges for washing are made from artificial materials. But many years ago they were collected from the sea. An ordinary toilet sponge lives at the bottom of the sea in a clean warm water. It is quite slippery and yellow or purple in color. After death, its soft parts rot, and a skeleton of fibers and needles remains, which people used as a washcloth. In some areas, such as the Mediterranean, toilet sponges were collected in such quantities that they became extremely rare. But it takes about 20 years for a sponge to grow.

How sponges reproduce.
Sponges are capable of forming small specific outgrowths, or buds, on the body, which then separate and develop into a new individual. But they also have access to sexual reproduction. Each sponge is both male and female, that is, it produces sperm and eggs. Sperm fertilize the eggs, which develop into tiny larvae that spread out. They remain in the open sea for two or three days, then sink to the bottom and develop into a new sponge.

How can sponges survive?
Sponges have no defenses. They cannot bite or sting. They can't swim away either. How do they protect themselves? The body of many sponges has many tiny, sharp needles of hard minerals such as lime, chalk or silica (the same substance that glass is made of). The needles form the skeleton of the sponge, give its body strength, and keep animals at a distance that would like to feast on the sponge. In addition, many species have bad smell and a terrible taste that deters predators.

Lamellar.
Lamellar includes only one species - Trichoplax adhaerens.
These small creatures, reaching the size of an ant, resemble giant amoebas, but their body consists of more than 1000 cells. The lamellar ones flow slowly, moving like . Only two species are known, and both live in the sea.

Sponges
About 10,000 species
Most are marine, only a few are freshwater
Many have an internal hard skeleton
The body is riddled with holes
Some reach 4 m

Lamellar
Just a few types
Sea life
Moves like slugs or giant amoebas
About 3 mm in length

Sponges(Spongia) is a type of invertebrate animal. Sponges probably descend from colonial collared flagellated protozoans, forming a blind branch at the base of the phylogenetic tree of metazoans.

Sponges arose in the Precambrian (about 1 billion 200 million years ago!, i.e. they are very ancient organisms), and reached their greatest prosperity in the Mesozoic.

Sponges are predominantly marine organisms, but not many are freshwater. Outwardly, sponges are even difficult to mistake for animals. They sit completely motionless, attached to the substrate, and do not react in any way to irritation. Sponges are often colonial organisms, but solitary ones are also found. The sponges feel hard and tough to the touch. Freshwater sponges are gray or greenish, but sea sponges are often brightly colored. Color depends on the presence of pigment cells. Many sponges have a specific unpleasant taste and smell, so they are not edible and no one touches them.

Sponges have an extremely primitive organization. Their body doesn't have any symmetry, it formless. Inside the goblet or sac-shaped body (from a few mm to 1.5 m or more in height) of a typical sponge there is paragastric cavity opening at the top wellhead hole. Sponges do not have real organs and tissues, but their body consists of a variety of cellular elements. On the surface of the body there are flat cells - pinacocytes, from the inside the paragastric cavity is lined with flagellar collar cells, or choanocytes. Between the layer of pinacocytes and the layer of choanocytes lies a structureless substance - mesoglea, containing amebocytes, collencytes, scleroblasts and other cells. On the surface of the sponge's body there are many since then, leading to channels piercing the walls of the body. Depending on the degree of development of the canal system, the localization of choanocytes and the flagellar chambers formed by them, 3 types of sponge structure are distinguished: ascon, sicon And lacon.

Almost all sponges have skeleton, formed by flint or limestone needles In horny sponges, the skeleton consists of the protein substance spongin.

The life activity of sponges is associated with continuous by straining through the body of water, which, thanks to the beating of the flagella of many choanocytes, enters the pores and, having passed through a system of canals, flagellar chambers and the paragastric cavity, comes out through the mouth. Food particles (detritus, protozoa, diatoms, bacteria, etc.) enter the sponge with water and metabolic products are removed. Food is captured by choanocytes and canal wall cells.

Most sponges are hermaphrodites. A ciliated larva develops from the egg - parenchymula, or amphiblastula, which comes out, floats, then settles to the bottom and turns into a young sponge. During metamorphosis, a process of the so-called characteristic only of sponges is observed. perversions embryonic leaflets, in which the cells of the outer layer migrate inward, and the cells of the inner layer end up on the surface. In addition, sponges have widespread budding and education gemmulus- types of asexual reproduction.

All sponges, as mentioned earlier, are aquatic, predominantly marine colonial, less often solitary animals leading a sedentary lifestyle. Meet from coastal zone and almost to the maximum depths of the ocean, they are most diverse and numerous on the shelf (shelf is a gently sloping, not deep zone of the seabed). Over 300 species live in the northern and Far Eastern seas of our country, about 30 species in the Black Sea, and 1 species of sponge in the Caspian Sea. In total, about 2,500 species have been described to date.

Sponge type is divided into 4 classes. The classification of sponges is based on their skeletal structure.

Class 1. Ordinary sponges(Demospongiae). In these sponges, the skeleton is formed by uniaxial or four-rayed flint spines. Channel system of leukonoid type. Usually colonial, less often solitary forms, predominantly marine forms. This most numerous class of modern sponges is represented by 2 orders: Siliceous sponges and Quadruped sponges.

In Silica sponges, the skeleton consists of flint uniaxial needles and organic matter - spongin or spongin fibers alone, forming a reticulate, less often tree-branched, support of the body. These are mainly colonial forms, having the appearance of cortical or cushion-like growths, unevenly grown lumps, plates or various kinds of tubular, funnel-shaped, stalk-like, bushy and other formations, up to 0.5 m or more in height. Silica sponges include those known to us Badyagi and several types Toilet sponges. Toilet sponges are used for toilet, medical and technical purposes. The fishery for these sponges is developed in the Mediterranean and Red Seas, off the coast of the island. Madagascar, Philippines, in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. The most valued is the so-called Greek sponge(Euspongia officinalis).

Four-rayed sponges have a spherical, ovoid, goblet-shaped, cushion-shaped body, usually up to 0.5 m high. The skeleton is formed by flint, usually four-rayed (hence the name) or their derivatives - uniaxial needles located radially in the body. Also colonial, less often solitary forms. They live mainly to a depth of 400 m. The family of four-ray sponges belongs to Drilling jaws, or Clions. These sponges are capable of making passages inside any calcareous substrate, leaving round holes with a diameter of about 1 mm on its surface. It is believed that the drilling mechanism is due to the simultaneous action of carbon dioxide released by the surface cells of the drilling sponges and the contractile forces of these cells. About 20 species, mainly in the shallow waters of warm seas. In our country there are 3 types, in Japanese, Black, White and Barents Seas. These sponges - dangerous pests oyster jars.

Class 2. Lime sponges(Calcispongiae). The skeleton of these sponges is formed by three-, four-beam and uniaxial needles made of calcium carbonate. The body is often barrel-shaped or tube-shaped. The only class of sponges that includes sponges that have all 3 types of channel systems. Calcareous sponges are small solitary (up to 7 cm high) or colonial organisms. Over 100 species, distributed exclusively in the seas temperate latitudes, mainly in shallow waters. Representatives Sicon, Sikandra, Leucandra, Ascetta.

Class 3. Coral sponges(Sclerospongiae). Colonial sponges. The width of the colonies is up to 1 m, height - 0.5 m. Known from the Mesozoic. The skeleton consists of a basal mass of aragonite or calcite and flint uniaxial needles. Living tissue only covers the surface of coral sponges with a thin layer (about 1-2 mm thick). Channel system of leukonoid type. A total of 10 species live in shallow water among the coral reefs of the West Indies, the western parts of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, in the Mediterranean Sea and off the island. Madeira.

Class 4. Glass sponges, or Six-beam sponges (Hyalospongia, or Hexactinellida). Known since the Cambrian. They were most diverse and numerous in the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era. Skeleton made of flint six-rayed needles (or their derivatives) with rays lying in three mutually perpendicular planes. Mostly single, bag-shaped, tubular, goblet-shaped or barrel-shaped, up to 1.5 m high. About 500 species. Oceanic organisms that usually live at depths of over 100 m. Glass sponges are very beautiful and are used as decorations. For example, a sponge basket of Venus, Euplectella, Hyalonema.