sponges are cool!

[glenora]

I never thought much about sponges until I read this article about them...

http://www.wetdawg.com/pages/under/sponge/index.html

 

[jiveturkey]

Tim Ecott's book "Neutral Buoyancy" has a cool section on the history of sponge diving. You might want to check it out. It's a great book for a diver either way.

 

[Nudibranch]

Sponges are way cool!
They are the only animal that can be passed through a seive and reconstitute themselves.

 

[Victoria]

Not only could you pass them through a seive but you can even mix them up with another sponge and they can still distinguish between self and non-self and put themselves back together again...

if only humpty dumpty had had a word with Mr Sponge before he sat on that wall!

 

[anth]

Sponges have no immune system... So the mystery is, why do they have any need to identify their own cells? Cellular grade animals, crazy stuff!

-Anth

 

[Victoria]

Depends what you define as an immune system... they actually have a very sophisticated cell-recognition system which is part of the primary immune response in many living organisms... they could actually be evolutionarally in the process of developing one... or are perhaps an example of the most basic immune system which has evoloved into a more complex system in other organisms/species due to ecological/gentic presures? :wacko:

 

[JRO]

And here I thought they were just simple filter feeders. Gives whole new meaning to the term "more than meets the eye".

Have you ever seen someone release dye near a sponge? Very interesting to see. Does anyone know if this somehow damages them?
:question:
Jeff