The 'balloon' is made of layers of cells. Their bodies are like balloons full of jelly. Cleaning and bath sponges were originally made from their flexible protein skeletons. Cleaning sponges today are typically made from cellulose or plastic. Y: Oh, Don, those usually aren't even real sponges. It’s also unclear exactly what the mucus is or how it’s moving backward through pores.Y: Hey Don, how would you like to hear about an animal stranger than most science fiction aliens?ĭ: Sponges? You must be kidding. But biologists need to dig deeper to figure out how widespread the mechanism is. archeri that uses the counterflow technique, Leys says. The team also noted a similar behavior in an Indo-Pacific sponge ( Chelonaplysilla sp). Most sponges appear to sneeze, so it’s likely not just A. “They let the animals show for themselves what was happening.” “There’s so much to be said for a study that really spends time and watches,” Kahn says. Scientists view sponges primarily as habitat builders, but the mucus buffet shows they also perform an important function as food providers, says Amanda Kahn, a marine biologist at Moss Landing Marine Labs in California who was not involved with this work. Other sea critters feast on these ocean boogers, like brittle stars and small crustaceans. In real time, this sponge takes between 20 and 50 minutes to complete a sneeze. As the time-lapse video zooms in closer, it’s possible to see tiny specks of debris floating out of these pores and traveling along a “mucus highway” where they collect into stringy clumps of goo floating above the surface of the sponge.

The Caribbean tube sponge ( Aplysina archeri) uses contractions - called “sneezes” - to help eject mucus from its pores, or ostia.

Can some sponges move