Other Free Encyclopedias :: Animal Life Resource :: Jellyfishes, Sponges, and Other Simple Animals

Sponges: Porifera - Physical Characteristics, Behavior And Reproduction, No Common Name (soleneiscus Radovani): Species Accounts, Bird's Nest Sponge (pheronema Carpenteri): Species Accounts - GEOGRAPHIC RANGE, HABITAT, DIET, SPONGES AND PEOPLE, CONSERVATI

NO COMMON NAME (Soleneiscus radovani): SPECIES ACCOUNTS
BIRD'S NEST SPONGE (Pheronema carpenteri): SPECIES ACCOUNTS
FRESHWATER SPONGE (Spongilla lacustris): SPECIES ACCOUNTS

GEOGRAPHIC RANGE

Sponges live all over the world.

HABITAT

Most sponges live in the sea, but a few species live in freshwater. Many sponges live on reefs. Most sponges need a firm surface on which to attach, such as rocks or the skeletons of dead sponges and coral. Other sponges live on sand or mud at the bottom of the deep sea. Freshwater sponges live in lakes and streams.

DIET

Sponges eat tiny particles such as bacterial plankton that they filter from the water that flows through them. A few sponges, however, are carnivorous (kar-NIH-vuh-rus), or meat eating. They engulf and digest small crustaceans (krus-TAY-shuns), or water-dwelling animals that have jointed legs and a hard shell but no backbone.

SPONGES AND PEOPLE

Some sponges produce compounds that can be used to make drugs for fighting diseases caused by viruses and bacteria. Other sponges are harvested and sold as bath sponges.

DID YOU KNOW?

The volume of water passing through a sponge in one day can be as much as twenty thousand times the volume of the sponge.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Sponges are not threatened or endangered.