Marine animal sponges. Sponges - description, types, signs, nutrition, examples and classification. We present you interesting facts about sea sponges

The crab probably came to admire the perfect structure of the skeleton of glass sponges of the Venus Basket species.

Sea sponges are primitive organisms. These are invertebrate animals that spend almost their entire lives attached to rocks or the bottom. Sponges are found almost everywhere, from coastal areas to the most deep places in the ocean. Approximately 8,000 species of sponges are represented. They do not have real tissues and organs, their functions are performed by individual cells and layers of cells. Sponges feed by pumping water through their own bodies. The filtrate, where small creatures and various organic particles fall, serves as food for the sponge.

There are also predatory sponges - there are about 140 species of them. These predators feed on crustaceans and other small animals. For hunting, sponges of the Cladorhizidae family use long, sticky filaments of cellular structure. When the victim sticks to the thread, it shortens, pulls the victim to the sponge, which gradually envelops the victim and digests. Sponges use water filtration not only to obtain food, but also to obtain oxygen for body tissues. According to experts, every day, many types of sponges pump through themselves a volume of water that is 20,000 times their own body volume. One of the most unusual species sponges - Cladorhizidae. These creatures can be called a living optical fiber.

This sponge belongs to the class of glass sponges (six-beam sponges) which form their base from silicon dioxide. These living organisms are very beautiful, because the threads of the "skeleton" are intertwined in the most unusual combinations. Glass sponges of the Cladorhizidae type usually coexist with shrimp, which occupy the internal cavity of the skeleton. The size of glass sponges reaches 20-30 centimeters.

Specialists from Bell Labs were previously interested in glass sponges. Representatives of the company, having studied the fibers of the skeleton, concluded that the material is similar in structure to optical fiber. The sponge fibers are 5-15 cm long and 40-70 microns in diameter. The structure of fibers is complex; they are multilayer objects. The center is a rod of, in fact, quartz glass. This rod is surrounded by layers of organics and a shell. Moreover, the shell has a special structure, which makes it possible to conduct light through artificial fibers.

Specialists from Bell Labs were surprised that sponges create their fibers in water, at a low temperature. Man, on the other hand, produces optical fiber using expensive equipment at high temperatures in special ovens. According to specialist Joanna Eisenberg, sponges can be an example alternative way fiber optic production. Moreover, a feature of the material produced by sponges is its strength and flexibility. Such fibers are much less brittle and practically do not crack. They can be tied into a knot without problems, the optical properties of the channel will practically not suffer. Light passes through such fibers very well, since sponges use sodium ions to form their glass skeleton, which improve the optical properties of the material. Naturally, sodium is added by these organisms under conditions of the same low temperature in aquatic environment. For fiber optic manufacturers, sodium ion control in manufacturing process is still a problem.

Bell Labs studied the structure of sponge fiber, finding that it consists of several layers. The optical properties of each layer are different. As mentioned above, the center of the sponge fiber is a pure quartz glass rod. Concentric layers of glass surround the rod as the sponge grows. It is this structure that makes the fiber formed by the sponge very resistant to breaks and cracks. The individual layers are glued together with a special organic adhesive. As the skeleton develops, the individual fibers intertwine together to form what looks like a lattice.

The structure of the skeleton of glass sponges has much in common with the structure of buildings and structures, man-made. True, the "buildings" that the sponge creates are 1000 times smaller than most objects of this type created by man. The photo shows the Swiss Tower from London, Hotel De Las Artes from Barcelona and structural element eiffel tower

The lattice is strengthened by a special substance (mesogley), and the sponge skeleton under the influence of mesoglea and fiber sheath becomes quite strong. According to experts, such a structure is similar to the one used by architects who create buildings in a seismic hazardous areas. Such material can be slightly deformed, but it is very difficult to break it. Evolving, sponges have learned to build the most durable skeletons from the minimum amount of material. The researchers say the sponge only uses as much material as it needs, and no more.

Interestingly, sponges of the species Euplectella aspergillum (the “Venus basket” already mentioned above) are attached to the bottom with the help of elastic glass spicule needles, the diameter of which is 50 microns. Their length can reach 10 centimeters. These spicules are very strong, so it is very difficult to break them by tearing off the sponge.

Last year, scientists studying glass sponges conducted simulations mechanical properties artificial fibers of these creatures. The aim was to find the optimal sequence of cylinder thicknesses to achieve maximum skeletal tensile strength. As it turned out, the calculated parameters are very close to the real ones. Sponges use a decrease in thickness from the center to the edge.

Joanna Eisenberg claims that the skeleton of glass sponges is one of the best solutions in engineering mechanics. Perhaps this material can help a person discover new possibilities of materials science and improve engineering design. This structure is very complex; this applies to both individual fibers and the entire skeleton as a whole. “It baffles me. I can't imagine how sponges form their skeleton from individual fibers, creating almost perfect structures," Eisenberg said. Now scientists suggest that in the center of each fiber during its formation there is a protein that plays an important role in the creation of both the rod and the entire fiber as a whole.

"It's amazing how many engineering methods of construction use sponges to build the skeleton," says James Weaver, a scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Natural washcloths are the most useful 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 the Mediterranean Sea. They are very beautiful and mysterious. It seems strange, but they are alive! Yes! The most real! Scientists have classified them in the animal kingdom.

Sponges do not have true tissues, they lack muscle, nerve and digestive system. Sea sponges are hermaphrodites and reproduce both sexually and by budding. These cuties are real predators, they feed on small animals when they filter water through their bodies.

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

Natural sea sponge

The main advantage of the sea sponge is the amazing softness and tenderness of the washcloth in contact with the skin. If you are a fan of dispersing blood well with a washcloth, then these bath accessories will not suit you at all.

But for small children, whose skin is very delicate, such a washcloth will be at the right time. Sea sponges do not cause skin irritation, allergies and other troubles. They are designed for gentle care and intimate hygiene.

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

Very often, with improper care of natural washcloths, various bacteria and microorganisms settle in them. But in sea ​​sponges They find shelter reluctantly, for two reasons:

1. Sponges dry very well and quickly, thanks to the porous structure of the body.
2. In the skeletons of sponges, repellent properties for microorganisms are preserved.

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 make a sponge of decent size. Just imagine, this is a good half of human life!

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

First, the sponges are cut from their roots. Then they remove possible garbage from the sea, it can be pebbles, shells, and so on ...

The next stage of processing is the sorting of sponges by size and quality. After that, they are subjected to an acid treatment, which disinfects them and brightens them.

And the last stage of processing is sunbathing. Sponges are dried in the sun until they finally become natural washcloths.

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

However, one cannot refuse natural product. After all, natural is much better than any chemistry. Use sea sponge washcloths, have fun, good luck to you! 🙂

Sponges (Porifera)- type of water, including about 10,000 known species living on earth today. Members of this type of animal are calcareous sponges, ordinary sponges, six-rayed sponges. Adult sponges are sedentary animals that live by attaching themselves to rocky surfaces, shells, or other underwater objects, while the larvae are free-swimming. Most sponges live in marine environment, but several species can be found in freshwater reservoirs.

Description

Sponges are primitive multicellular animals that do not have a digestive, circulatory and nervous systems. They have no organs and the cells do not organize a well-defined structure.

There are three main classes of sponges. Glass sponges have a skeleton that is made up of brittle, glassy needles formed from silica. Ordinary sponges are often brightly colored and grow larger than other sponges. On the ordinary sponges accounts for more than 90 percent of all modern species sponges. Lime sponges are the only class of sponges that have spicules composed of calcium carbonate. Lime sponges are usually smaller than other members of the type.

The body of a sponge is like a bag, perforated with many small holes or pores. The walls of the body are made up of three layers:

• the outer layer of flat cells of the epidermis;
• middle layer, which consists of gelatinous substance and amoeboid cells migrating within the layer;
• the inner layer is formed from flagella and collar (choanocytes) cells.

Food

Sponges feed by filtering water. They suck in water through pores located along the entire body wall in the central cavity. The central cavity is lined with collar cells, which have a ring of tentacles surrounding the flagellum. The movement of the flagellum creates a current that retains water flowing through the central cavity into a hole in the top of the sponge called the osculum. As water passes through the collar cells, food is captured by the rings of tentacles. Further, food is digested in food or amoeboid cells in the middle layer of the wall.

The water flow also provides a constant supply of oxygen and removes nitrogenous waste. Water exits the sponge through a large hole in the top of the body called the osculum.

Classification

Sponges are divided into the following main taxonomic groups.

Sponges(Spongia) is a phylum of invertebrates. Sponges are probably descended from colonial collared flagellar protozoa, forming a blind branch at the base of the metazoan phylogenetic tree.

Sponges originated in the Precambrian (approximately 1 billion 200 million years ago!, That is, they are very ancient organisms), they reached their greatest prosperity in the Mesozoic.

Sponges are predominantly marine organisms, 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 to irritation in any way. Sponges are more often colonial organisms, but solitary ones are also found. To the touch, the sponges are firm, hard. Freshwater badyagi are gray or greenish, but sea sponges are often brightly colored. Coloring 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 are distinguished by an extremely primitive organization. Their body does not have any symmetry, it shapeless. Inside the goblet or sac-shaped body (a few mm to 1.5 m or more in height) of a typical sponge is paragastric cavity opening at the top estuarine 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 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 amoebocytes, collencites, scleroblasts and other cells. There are many sponges on the surface of the body since leading to channels penetrating 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, Seacon and leukone.

Almost all Sponges have skeleton, formed by siliceous or calcareous needles, in horny sponges, the skeleton consists of the protein substance of spongin.

The vital activity of sponges is associated with continuous straining through the body of water, which, due to the beating of the flagella of many choanocytes, enters the pores and, having passed through the system of channels, flagellar chambers and the paragastric cavity, exits through the mouth. With water, food particles (detritus, protozoa, diatoms, bacteria, etc.) enter the sponge and metabolic products are removed. Food capture is carried out by choanocytes and canal wall cells.

Most sponges - hermaphrodites. A larva develops from an egg - parenchymula, or amphiblastula, which comes out, swims, then settles to the bottom and turns into a young sponge. During metamorphosis, a process characteristic only of sponges, the so-called perversions germinal leaflets, in which the cells of the outer layer migrate inward, and the cells of the inner layer are on the surface. In addition, sponges are widespread budding and education gemmul- Varieties of asexual reproduction.

All sponges, as mentioned earlier, are aquatic, mainly marine colonial, less often solitary animals leading a motionless lifestyle. They are found from the coastal zone and almost to the maximum depths of the ocean, the most diverse and numerous on the shelf (the shelf is a flat, not deep zone of the seabed). In northern and Far Eastern seas more than 300 species of sponges live in our country, about 30 species in the Black Sea, and 1 species of sponges in the Caspian Sea. In total, about 2500 species have been described so far.

Sponge type is divided into 4 classes. The classification of sponges is based on the structure of the skeleton.

Class 1. Ordinary sponges(Demospongiae). In these sponges, the skeleton is formed by uniaxial or four-beam flint needles. Channel system of leukonoid type. Usually colonial, rarely solitary forms, predominantly marine forms. This most numerous class of modern sponges is represented by 2 orders: Silicon-horned and Four-beam sponges.

In silicon-horned sponges, the skeleton consists of siliceous uniaxial needles and organic matter - spongin or from spongy fibers alone, forming a mesh, less often tree-branched support of the body. Basically, these are colonial forms that look like crusty or cushion-like growths, unevenly overgrown lumps, plates, or various kinds of tubular, funnel-shaped, stalked, bushy and other formations, up to 0.5 m or more in height. The cream-horned sponges include the known to us badyagi and several types Toiletries sponges. Toilet sponges are used for toilet, medical and technical purposes. The fishing of these sponges is developed in the Mediterranean and Red Seas, off the coast of about. Madagascar, Philippines, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. The most valued is the so-called Greek sponge(Euspongia officinalis).

In four-beam sponges, the body is spherical, ovoid, goblet-shaped, cushion-shaped, usually up to 0.5 m high. The skeleton is formed by flint, usually four-beam (hence the name) or their derivatives - uniaxial needles located radially in the body. Also colonial, rarely solitary forms. They live mainly to a depth of 400 m. The four-beam sponges include the family Drilling jaws, or klions. These sponges are able to make moves inside any calcareous substrate, leaving rounded 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 secreted by the surface cells of drilling sponges and the contractile efforts of these cells. About 20 species, mainly in shallow waters of warm seas. In our country - 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 of calcium carbonate. The body is often barrel-shaped or tubular. The only class of sponges in which sponges with all 3 types of channel system are marked. Lime 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 water. Representatives Seacon, Sikandra, Leukandra, asceta.

Class 3. Coral sponges(Sclerospongiae). colonial sponges. The width of the colonies is up to 1 m, the height is 0.5 m. They are known from the Mesozoic. The skeleton consists of a basal mass of aragonite or calcite and uniaxial siliceous needles. Living tissue covers only a thin layer (about 1-2 mm thick) on the surface of coral sponges. Channel system of leukonoid type. Only 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 about. Madeira.

Class 4. Glass sponges, or Six-beam sponges (Hyalospongia, or Hexactinellida). Known since the Cambrian. The most diverse and numerous were in the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era. Skeleton of flint six-beam needles (or their derivatives) with rays lying in three mutually perpendicular planes. Mostly solitary, bag-shaped, tubular, goblet-shaped or barrel-shaped forms, 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, euplektella, hyalonema.

Sponge "pink flowerpot" (lat. Niphates digitalis) is striking in its variety of shapes and colors. All sponges are a primitive type of multicellular animals leading an immobile lifestyle. For many centuries they were mistaken for plants and called living bushes.

Sponges were included in the animal kingdom in the second half of the 19th century. Although many of us cannot even imagine that the natural washcloths that we use to wash our bodies are just the skeletons of sponges that live in the depths of the sea.

Fishing and breeding

The object of fishing and breeding are ordinary non-calcareous classes of sponges. Their extraction is carried out by divers of the Red, Mediterranean and Caribbean seas, as well as Gulf of Mexico and indian ocean. There are many farms that grow toilet sponges.

The captured specimen is thoroughly rinsed to get rid of its tenants, then the cleaned skeleton is fed to industrial processing. AT natural conditions sponges meet the most different colors and shades.

Spreading

Marine species of these animals live in warm waters all seas of the World Ocean. Most of them settle at a depth of up to 500 m, and only the most deep sea species can live at depths up to 7000 m.

A small group of sponges inhabits freshwater reservoirs. Regardless of where they live, they are all sensitive to industrial pollution, which in many cases lead to their mass death. As a rule, they take root in calm waters rich in organic matter.

reproduction

Sponges are able to reproduce both sexually and asexually. The latter occurs with the help of budding. A piece of the body moves along the bottom and, fixed on a fixed base, gives life to a new organism.

Some species form internal kidneys able to survive adverse weather conditions. In autumn, gemmules are formed in the freshwater bodyaga - balls from the accumulation of living cells. In winter, the bodyaga dies off, and the gemmules that have fallen to the bottom turn into a new sponge with the advent of spring. In the same way, they can reproduce sea ​​views, forming internal buds of sorites.

The surface area of ​​a sponge is very large compared to its weight. If her dried skeleton weighs 4 g, then the area of ​​her tubules is up to 34 square meters. m. At one time, the sponge collects water 30 times more weight own body. To increase her body weight by 100 g, she must pass through herself up to 4000 kg of water.

At the same time, female and male individuals throw gametes into the water, and after fertilization of the eggs, planulas are obtained from them - larvae that swim in the water column for several days.

They are carried by the current for considerable distances from their parents. After a few days, planulas fall to the bottom and turn into young sponges, which, under favorable conditions, weather conditions create entire colonies.

Behavior

Most sponges live in colonies. Highly rare species These animals can settle singly. Freshwater colonies live no more than one year, while their marine counterparts are more durable. Appearance sponges depends on where they live.

In those places where there is a strong current, they form flat tuberous covers. On the great depths with a weak current, these animals create bizarre forms of bushes, leaves or branches.

They need only a small number of muscle cells to survive. Spending their lives in one place, they feed on microorganisms and organics passing by them.

Morphology

Water enters the paragastric cavity through superficial pores and tubules. Chaonocytes, having captured small particles from the water, digest them. A small part of the food is given to archaeocyates, which float in the mesoglea between the walls of the body, and they carry them to the outer layers.

Filtered water is pushed out through the mouth of the paragistral cavity - the osculum. Collar cell flagella promote water flow.

Sponges secrete toxic substances that protect them from attack by enemies. Often all kinds of invertebrate creatures settle in their bodies, and unicellular algae, protozoa and bacteria live in the body itself.

Description

According to the structure of its body, the "pink flowerpot" Niphates digitalis belongs to the simplest type, which is distinguished by an elongated bag-like shape. Its inner layer is lined with collar cells - choanocytes with long flagella. The outer layer consists of flat pinacocyte cells.

The fragile mineral skeleton of Niphates digitalis is formed from skeletal needles, which include silica and spongin. The substance mesoglea fills the space between two layers of cells and forms the walls of the body. It contains archeocytes, which carry nutrients throughout the body and form germ cells.

The life expectancy of the "pink flowerpot" reaches 10 years.