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The beauty of the vibrant coloured Sponges in the sea of Chek Jawa interest me most. They are full of fascinating facts. It was believed by the scientists to be one of the first animals alive. Ancestors of today's Sponges were alive for billions of years ago. Sponges have looked the same after millions of years. It has no organ and brain. It is just a simple animal living in the underwater world. It was believed as a plant until the year 1765.

You must be wondering why are Sponges animals if they do not have brain, organ, heart and etc. This is because they do not need sunlight to make food. They get food from their surroundings. The pores, or tiny holes, in the skin of a sponge water in so that the sponge can extract oxygen and food for all of its cells to stay alive. If you look closer, you will come to realize that Sponges contain one large hole at the top of their bodies, known as an osculum, and they also have smaller holes on the sides known as ostia. The water passes by the mesohyl, also called the mesenchyme which contains cells and the sclerocytes. Sclerocytes make spicules. After the water is filtered, it is pushed out of the sponge. First it goes to a hollow area called the spongocoel, which is a large, empty cavity. To my surprise, sponges in the Caribbean Sea can filter the entire sea in just one day. Thanks to Sponges, the sea ain't as dirty as it seem to be.

How does the sponge take all the food and oxygen out of the water? Oxygen is absorbed right into the cells. But for food, there are special cells that help to take the food out of the water. These cells are known as choanocytes. Each choanocyte has a collar which takes the food and a flagellum, or little whip. The whip catches the food as it sways with the water. Then, archaeocytes (the best cells in the sponge that do everything from transport food to make new sponges) come and take it to other sponge cells. After this, water is pushed into the spongocoel and out of the osculum or ostia.

Sponge's cells are really interesting. Every cell in a sponge has a special job. When cells of the same type come together, they make tissues. Tissues create organs, but sponges don't have any organs. That means no brain, eyes, hearts, etc. However, despite all that is set against them, they always manage to stick together. While their spicules, tiny needles that stick out from all sides of the sponge, hold them together, sponges also have another special way to stick together. If you had a sponge in a salt-water aquarium and break it up into thousands of pieces, the cells would come back together again in the exact same shape within several hours. How amazing is that?

Eventually, food chains can be found in every part of the world not leaving out the underwater world. Sponges do have predators too. Every living thing has it's ways to protect themselves from predators. Sponges protect themselves by their spicules. Spicules are sharp and bristly. Not only do they help protect them, it holds them up too.

At first, i thought sponges are plants and stones. But now, they are no more plants and stones in my head, they are animals. Animals that are really different from the others. Today, there are more than 5, 000 different types of sponges out at sea. Their existence have left us a humongous book of their history.


http://www.smithlifescience.com/SpongeInformation.htm
http://chekjawa.nus.edu.sg/ria/text/sponges.htm