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. And the sponge does this by undergoing an extended contraction, referred to as a “sneeze.”

These waste particles would soon clog up a sponge’s filtration system and so they need to be removed. Under these circumstances it may take in unwanted particles of sediment with its constant inflow of water.

However, a new study that analyzed videos of sponges over extended time periods has identified a special technique that they use to get rid of unwanted material from inside their bodies.Īs one of the oldest multicellular organisms in existence, a sponge spends most of its life stuck to the substratum and cannot move away when conditions become unpleasant.

They do not have a nervous, digestive or circulatory system, and remove waste products by releasing them into this same flow of water. Sponges are ancient filter-feeding animals that rely on maintaining a flow of water through their bodies to obtain suspended food and dissolved oxygen.

How does a sponge move water through it