Biologists have used a variety of drugs to elicit sneezes in freshwater sponges and observed the process using fluorescent dye. Their efforts focused on the sponge's osculum, which controls water ...

In real time, this sponge takes between 20 and 50 minutes to complete a sneeze. Other sea critters feast on these ocean boogers, like brittle stars and small crustaceans.

Find the pores, and notice the thread-like spicules made of protein. This sponge grew up around a bryozoan colony, which you can see at the bottom and top of the specimen, and a ... Notice the ...

However, in the absence of other clearly identifiable sponge characteristics — such as the skeletal elements known as spicules, the inhalant porocyte canals, or the large excretory osculum ...