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Sponge loop hypothesis. Steps of the sponge loop pathway: (1) corals and algae release exudates as dissolved organic matter (DOM), (2) sponges take up DOM, (3) sponges release detrital particulate organic matter (POM), (4) sponge detritus (POM) is taken up by sponge-associated and free-living detritivores. [61] [63] [75] The sponge holobiont.
The circulation of water brings in food particles and sperm, both of which are collected by choanocytes. In addition to the pinacocyte and choanocyte layers, sponges also have a non-living mesohyl layer that is located between the two living layers. Despite being made up of non-living material, the mesohyl contains living cells called archaeocytes.
A large fraction of the chemical elements that occur naturally on the Earth's surface are essential to the structure and metabolism of living things. Four of these elements (hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen) are essential to every living thing and collectively make up 99% of the mass of protoplasm. [1]
Some sponges live to great ages; there is evidence of the deep-sea glass sponge Monorhaphis chuni living about 11,000 years. [ 213 ] [ 214 ] While most of the approximately 5,000–10,000 known species feed on bacteria and other food particles in the water, some host photosynthesizing micro-organisms as endosymbionts and these alliances often ...
Hippospongia communis also known as the honeycomb bath sponge, is a marine sponge in the phylum Porifera. Hippospongia communis is a brown or darker color [ 1 ] and very porous, due to its many oscules , and is commonly found in shallow waters of the Mediterranean .
About 311 million years ago, in the Late Carboniferous, the order Spongillida split from the marine sponges, and is the only sponges to live in freshwater environments. [8] Some species are brightly colored, with great variety in body shape; the largest species are over 1 m (3.3 ft) across. [ 6 ]
All sponges in this class are strictly marine, and, while they are distributed worldwide, most are found in shallow tropical waters. Like nearly all other sponges, they are sedentary filter feeders. All three sponge body plans (asconoid, syconoid, and leuconoid) can be found within the class Calcarea. Typically, calcareous sponges are small ...
Most sponges produce skeletons formed by spicules, structural elements that develop in a wide variety of sizes and three dimensional shapes. Among the four sub-clades of Porifera, three ( Demospongiae , Hexactinellida , and Homoscleromorpha ) produce skeletons of amorphous silica [ 12 ] and one ( Calcarea ) of magnesium-calcite. [ 13 ]