Sponge
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
- The article about sponges as tools for washing is at Sponge (tool)
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A sponge is a very simple kind of animal. It lives in the ocean. It has quite a few channels, which grow thinner all the time. It feeds from pumping water through, and lives off what is in that water. It is a filter feeder. Sponges are stationary, they are fixed to some kind of support. The larvae of the sponges can move about, though. The tissue of the sponges has very little structure. There are no organs, no nerves, no muscles and no brain.
There are over 5000 different kinds of sponges currently known. Sponges can be found from the tidal zone to the abysmal zone, to a depth of about 8,500 meters.
All sponges have a distinct sex, or they are hermaphrodites. They can reproduce both sexually and asexually.
People have used sponges (collected and dried) for a long time. They usually wash with a sponge.
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[change] Different kinds of sponges
There are 3 different kinds of sponges. The difference between these kinds is in how their skeleton is made.
[change] Demosponges
This class contains most of the sponges. The sponges in this class make their skeleton from spongin. Spongin is a special protein. All the large sponges are in this order.
[change] Bony sponges
The first kind is the sponges that use calcium-carbonate to make the skeleton, their internal hard structure. They are known as Calcarea. They are usually very small, only 3-4 inches in height. Of the about 15.000 sponges known, about 400 are Calcarea.
[change] Glass sponges
The second kind of sponges use silicon dioxide to make their skeletons. They are often called Glass sponges (Hexactinellida). Most of these live in great depths in the ocean. There are about 500 different kinds of glass sponges, in 17 different families. These sponges make for about 7% of all known sponges.
