🎲

🦁 Animal world 🐬 Sea animals

The sponge

The sponge

πŸ“– In short

The sea sponge is an animal! Yes, even though it doesn't move and has no head, arms or heart, it's an animal living on the seabed, stuck to the rocks. It looks like a plant and comes in lots of colors and shapes.

🀩 Did you know?

  • Fossils have been found of sea sponges that lived 500 million years ago.
  • The smallest sponge is about 2.5 centimeters across, and the biggest more than a meter.
  • Some sponges live 7000 meters below the surface of the sea.
  • Baby sponges swim a little before they settle on a rock.

πŸ”Ž Find out more

🌟 A body full of holes

A sponge's body is full of tiny holes. Water flows in through them, the sponge takes tiny bits of food and oxygen from it, then the water flows out of a big opening at the top.

πŸ” A very simple animal

The sponge is one of the simplest and oldest animals on Earth. Its cells work together, and if a piece is cut off, it can grow into a new sponge.

πŸ’‘ Sponges in the bathroom

Long ago people used the soft skeleton of sea sponges for washing and cleaning. But most sponges we use today are made in factories.

🎯 All shapes and sizes

Some sponges are as small as a walnut, and some as big as a barrel. Some are shaped like tubes, fans or balls.

πŸ“Έ More pictures

The sponge
The sponge
The sponge

🧩 Test yourself

1 Is the sea sponge an animal or a plant?

2 How does a sponge get its food?

3 Fossils have been found of sea sponges that lived ?? million years ago.

4 Which picture shows β€œThe sponge”?

🦁 Discover more

πŸ“· Picture sources: Wikimedia Commons