What is the name of the sea sponge? Interesting facts about sponges

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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 through one large one called an estuary. Adult sponges are attached to the substrate, but their larvae are able to actively swim. 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 long

Scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology concluded that the common sea sponge is the first animal on Earth. Genetic analysis has shown that sponges are the source organic molecules, discovered in rocks 640 million years old. /website/

It was previously believed that the first types of animals arose on the planet during the Cambrian Explosion, that is, about 540 million years ago. In the sediments of the Precambrian period, fossil remains of animals were extremely rare. However, a new study has shown that sea sponges existed 100 million years earlier.

American scientists worked with molecular fossils - the lipid 24-isopropylcholestane, found in stones from Oman. The lipid was 640 million years old. Scientists knew that it was produced by some modern algae and sponges. However, genetic analysis has shown that sponges are the sources of the ancient lipid. While the sponges began to produce this gene, all the surrounding organisms had not even formed yet.

Thus, it turned out that sea sponges are the most ancient representatives animal world. However, they still live today.

Sea sponges are one of the most mysterious representatives of the animal world with which scientists work. Moreover, they are so primitive that at first biologists mistook sponges for plants. These animals, having deviated from the main path of evolution, seem truly immortal.

These sea ​​creatures unlike any other. They are unable to move, so they lead a sedentary lifestyle. At the same time, sponges are practically invulnerable - they can be rubbed through a sieve, after which its particles will reassemble into a new viable body. In addition, sponges practically do not get sick.

Scientists have also found that sponges love to eat well. They absorb up to two-thirds of their own weight every day. In this case, the size of the sponge does not change, although according to calculations it turns out that its mass should constantly increase. The study showed that the cells inside the sponge intensively exfoliate from the walls. This kind of molting helps the lips not to get fat.

Sponges do not have a mouth. They take food not through a hole in the body, but by straining sea ​​water. Water enters the pores of the sponge, leaving organic matter, which are the food of the animal.

There are about 5 thousand species of sponges in the world. More than 300 of them live in the seas of Russia. At the same time, there are also freshwater sponges that live in rivers and lakes. They love clean water and can serve as an indicator of the cleanliness of the reservoir.

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. these 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 flagellated 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 germinal 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 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 Sikon, 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.

The sea sponge is perhaps one of the most unusual and amazing representatives animal world. They were used for hygienic purposes more than 2000 years ago. And today, no bath accessories made from synthetic materials can compare with natural sponges in terms of the impact on the human body. Previously, the presence of such an accessory in the bathroom was very rare, but today this most delicate product, gifted to us by nature itself, can be found in almost any store.

Properties

Marine has unique properties that are unique to it. It is much softer and more durable than the more familiar synthetic washcloths, and absorbs more water, does not retain foreign odors. When dry, the sponge is quite hard, but after getting wet it becomes incredibly soft and silky, while remaining elastic. It has a delicate pile, thanks to which the skin is perfectly cleansed and does not get injured. You can use the sponge even on children from birth; it will not harm the baby’s delicate skin.

Application in cosmetology

Sea sponge is a product that cannot harm the skin or any other surface. When using this accessory, the pores of the epidermis open, cell respiration is activated, and blood circulation improves.

Using a natural sponge you can:

Marine how to use it correctly?

For removing makeup. Moisten a sea sponge with water, apply your usual makeup remover (foam, gel, milk) and strictly follow the massage lines to wash off the makeup.

To remove the mask. Moisten a sponge with water and clean your face without using cosmetics.

After use, wash the sponge thoroughly with soap and squeeze it out (do not twist it), then dry it. Do not immerse a sea sponge in too much hot shower and dry in direct sunlight.

You can use the sponge for 6 to 12 months, after which you can replace it with a new one.

Fighting cellulite

Thanks to environmentally friendly extraction, natural sea sponge retains all the benefits. It consists of special fibers, under the influence of which blood microcirculation in the subcutaneous fat tissue improves, muscles are strengthened and therefore this sponge is quite effective in correcting cellulite. Its regular use promotes weight loss, volume reduction, and reduction of fat deposits. In order to achieve a noticeable result, you should massage problem areas (buttocks, thighs, stomach, upper arms) every day during your evening shower with a damp sponge in a circular motion from bottom to top. It is recommended to complete the procedure with a cool shower.

Applying makeup

Premium bleached sea sponges, which have a finely porous structure, are used to apply fluid-type foundation. Thanks to them, you can use cosmetic products quite economically and achieve more natural look. Before use, the sponge must be moistened with water and wrung out well, and after use it must be washed.

Where else are sea sponges used?

In addition to caring for the body and face, such natural washcloths are used in optical and jewelry production. As a material for filtering oils and grinding surfaces, they are used in the printing industry. Also, sea sponge can be used in construction work for various decorative techniques.

In conclusion

Cleanse the skin of impurities, give it smoothness and even out complexion, activate cell regeneration, accelerate the renewal of the surface layer of the dermis - all this can be done by such a wonderful product as a sea sponge. Reviews from those who have experienced its effects are extremely positive. Try it too - you won’t regret it!

Natural washcloths are the most beneficial for humans. They are mainly made from various plants, but there is an exception to this rule. Meet sea sponge washcloths!

The habitat of natural sponges is the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas. They are very beautiful and mysterious. It seems strange, but they are alive! Yes! The most real ones! Scientists have classified them as part of the animal kingdom.

Sponges do not have true tissues, lacking muscle, nervous and digestive system. Sea sponges are hermaphrodites and reproduce both sexually and by budding. These cuties are true predators, feeding on small animals as they filter water through their bodies.

The shape of the sponges resembles a glass or bowl. Natural sponges from which washcloths are made are dark gray in color. When they dry, they turn yellow or brown.

The amazing properties of sponges have allowed people to use them for commercial purposes. Yes, it is from the skeletons of these animals that toilet (bath) sponges are produced.

Natural washcloth made from sea sponge

The main advantage of a sea sponge is the amazing softness and tenderness of the washcloth in contact with the skin. If you like to thoroughly disperse the blood with a washcloth, then these bath accessories are absolutely not suitable for you.

But for little children, whose skin is very delicate, such a washcloth will come in handy. Sea sponges do not cause skin irritation, allergies or other problems. They are designed for gentle care and intimate hygiene.

Lovers of rich foam - this is the washcloth for you! In addition, natural sponges stroke the body so gently that they involuntarily soothe and relax.

Very often, if natural washcloths are not properly cared for, various bacteria and microorganisms settle in them. But they are reluctant to find refuge in sea sponges, for two reasons:

1. Sponges dry very well and quickly, thanks to the porous structure of the body.
2. The skeletons of sponges retain their repellent properties for microorganisms.

For this reason, sponges are one of the most useful natural washcloths. Of course, there are also disadvantages to such washcloths.

The service life of natural sea sponges rarely reaches a year, and the price is not acceptable for everyone.

The high cost is due to the fact that sponges grow rather slowly. It takes about 40 years to turn a sponge into a decent-sized washcloth. Just imagine, this is a good half of a human life!

Also, the price of the product directly depends on the special processing, which consists of several stages.

First, the sponges are cut from their roots. Then possible sea debris is removed, these can be pebbles, shells, and so on...

The next stage of processing is sorting the sponges by size and quality. They are then treated with acid, which disinfects and brightens them.

And the last stage of processing consists of sunbathing. The sponges are dried in the sun until they finally become natural sponges.

It remains to add that all work is done almost by hand. In addition, large volumes of sea sponge harvesting have significantly reduced their population. 🙁

But, nevertheless, a person cannot refuse natural product. After all, natural is much better than any chemistry. Use sea sponge washcloths, have fun, good luck! 🙂