What is the Difference Between Sponges and Coral?

Sponge is a collective name for a class of porous filter-feeding organisms that originated in the Cambrian Period of 570-500 million years ago, of which 390 genera have been confirmed to originate in the Cretaceous (135-65 million years ago). There are about 5,000 species of Spongeifera, divided into 790 genera and 80 families, which are distributed worldwide, from freshwater to marine, from intertidal to deep ocean. They come in various shapes, such as massive, tubular, bifurcated, umbrella-shaped, cup-shaped, fan-shaped, or irregular in shape, ranging from extremely small to 2 meters long, often forming a thin coating on the substrate to which they are attached. They may be single or very bright in color, derived from carotenoids, mainly yellow to red.

Also known as "porous animal" is the lowest multicellular animal. Individual or group, different sizes, a few millimeters in the small, up to 2 meters in the larger. The shape of a single body varies greatly. The body has no fixed shape. There are spherical, dendritic, tubular, bottle-shaped, or cylindrical shapes. The center of the body is a hollow central cavity. The body wall is perforated with many small holes, so it is also called a porous animal. . The body wall is composed of two layers of cells: the outer layer is a flat cell, which plays a protective role. The inner layer is flagellum cells that play a role in feeding and digestion. The bones are silicon or calcium bone needles and bone wires. Bone needles support the body and can preserve fossils. The shape of the bone needle is uniaxial, biaxial, triaxial, or multiaxial, etc., or it can be divided into single shot, double shot, and multishot according to the number of points separated from the center point. Some shapes are irregular. . The Spongozoa can be divided into the general sponge class, the glass sponge class, the calcareous sponge class and the bone sponge class. Spongy animals are mostly marine, and freshwater lives are rare. It first appeared in the Pre-Cambrian Period and has continued into modern times. It has special significance for the study of geology. ^[1]

Spongy animals originated 570-500 million years ago

Sponge animal

Six shot sponge class (six release sponge)

About 600 species are marine and generally inhabit below the tide line

The basic structure of the sponge animal body is composed of a cavity in the center of two layers of cells. The free end has

Although spongy animals are the most

In all the oceans around the world, the number of sponge animals is huge; on a hard substrate, they are even more amazing; relatively speaking, very few sponge animals can adapt to the unstable environment of sand or mud. Their vertical living areas extend from the lowest point of the waterfront at the time of tidal effects and extend down to the abyss of the ocean at 8,600 meters; the freshwater sponge family in siliceous sponges can even survive in freshwater lakes and rivers around the world. Sponges that inhabit tide marks are usually limited to a part of the coast, that is, the part of the coast that is exposed to the air for a short time. Some sponges also appear a little above the coast, but are restricted to inhabiting sheltered areas or rocks facing away from the sun. Some sponge animals will die once exposed to the air for a long time, so in the shallow waters of the continental shelf, the number of sponge species and individuals is the largest.

Giant cave sponges are often the habitat of smaller animals, some of which are harmless to sponges, while others are parasitic. Many sponge animals contain

Sponge animals are only useful to the bones of sponges, such as bath sponges, because sponge fibers are soft and have a strong ability to absorb liquids, which can be used for bathing and medical absorption of medicinal fluid, blood or pus. Some other types of fibers contain more or less silicon bones, so they are harder and can be used to wipe machines. Naturally produced sponges are not enough. In some places, artificial methods are used to reproduce them. The method is to cut the sponge into small pieces, tie it to a stone stand, and then sink it to the sea floor. Generally, it can grow in two or three years. Some species often grow on the shells of oysters, which can seal the shells and cause oysters to die. The proliferation of freshwater sponges can block waterways, which are harmful to people. Some freshwater sponges require certain physical and chemical living conditions, so they can be used as identifiers for the water environment. Paleontological studies have shown that the special deposits of sponges are useful for analyzing changes in past environments. The research on sponges has developed rapidly over the years. It is not only the sponge animal itself, but more importantly, it is used as a material for basic problems in life sciences, such as some basic problems in cell and developmental biology. Therefore, sponge animals It also has special significance for scientific research. ^[3]