How do sponges make water move11/5/2023 ![]() ![]() “In the videos, you can see that the mucus moves along defined paths on the surface of the sponge before accumulating. There are still many aspects about sponge “sneezes” that remain to be investigated. “Our findings highlight opportunities to better understand material cycling in some of the most ancient Metazoans,” wrote the study authors. I’ve seen mucus accumulate on different sponges while diving and in pictures taken by other scientists for other purposes,” said Kornder. “We actually think that most, if not all, sponges sneeze. The researchers noted this “sneezing” behavior in two species of sponges, the Caribbean tube sponge Aplysina archeri and another Indo-Pacific species of the genus Chelonaplysilla. Sponges transform this material into eatable mucus.” “Some organic matter exists in the water surrounding the coral reef, but most of it is not concentrated enough for other animals to eat. ![]() “We also observed fish and other animals feeding off of the sponge mucus as food,” explained study first author Niklas Kornder. Fish hang around the sponges waiting for these strings of mucus to be shed so that they may eat them. What is a sponge’s waste is a fish’s windfall. Every now and then, the sponge goes through a contraction (sneeze) that loosens the strings of mucus and accumulated particulate matter, dispatching them into the water column. They then expel unwanted particles through their pores and these become aggregated in the stringy clumps of mucus. They actively secrete mucus, often against the direction of water flow, onto their outer surfaces. The researchers used time-lapse videos of sponges to show that these organisms do not simply dispose of waste and unwanted particles with water that flows away through the outlet pores. But both sponge and human sneezes exist as a waste disposal mechanism,” says de Goeij. A sponge sneeze takes about half an hour to complete. “Let’s be clear: sponges don’t sneeze like humans do. While biologists have known about the contraction behavior, the authors of this paper show that these sneezes get rid of materials the sponges cannot use. ![]() “Our data suggest that sneezing is an adaptation that sponges evolved to keep themselves clean,” said study senior author Jasper de Goeij, a marine biologist at the University of Amsterdam. ![]()
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