Here are 10 interesting facts you may not know about sea sponges!
1. Because sea sponge cells are not linked in a tissue, the cells can be separated and put back together. Some species, such as the freshwater sponge Ephydatia fluviatilis can be pushed through a sieve, and if given enough time, the individual cells will come together again to form a new sponge! These are the only animals that can put themselves back together again if broken into pieces.
2. Sea sponges are believed to have comprised more than half the biomass of marine reefs!
3. One of the first drugs used for treating cancer, cytosine arabinoside was isolated from a sea sponge!
4. Sponges are remarkable pumping "machines". A sponge the size of a gallon milk container is capable of pumping enough water to fill a residential small size swimming pool within one day!
5. Within a sponge, it is possible to find 16 000 other animals!
6. The largest sponge ever measured, a Monorapuhs sponge, was approximately 10 feet wide!
7. Sponges sometimes live on the backs of hermit crabs and act as a type of shell!
8. Ancient Greeks used sea sponges to pad their helmets and leg armor!
9. When Mitch Sogin, a biologist at the Marine Biology Lab at Woods Hole, compared the genetic blueprint of a sponge with those of other animals, he discovered that all animals with more than one cell are based on a sponge’s genetic blueprint.
10. Sea sponges produce potent chemicals to defend themselves against other animals that try to overgrow, poison, infect or eat them.
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