Dave Campbell. aged 10. of Mt. Sterling. Ohio

Do sponges. lay eggs?

We might expect a new sponge. to grow from a bud: For living sponge: look for all the world like plants. And some sponges do grove from buds. Though the sponge is an animal and not a plant. A mall three inch sponge may be formed from a dozen sponges. Each started as a bud sprouting out of the parent sponge. The family is so closely knit that it is hard to tell mother sponge from her daughters. The whole mass looks like a single sponge.

Other sponges. however do begin life as eggs. The tiny eggs measure no mores thaw a thousand to an inch. When they hatch they leave home and swim off into the water. Many of these little larvae ‑sponges are swallowed by fishes. Mostly this is by accident. For a fish will eat. eat a sponge if he can avoid it. The strange animals have a horrible smell and most likely a horrible taste.

The young sponges that survive soon give up their carefree life and settle down. They fix themselves on the ocean floor on a rook or on the firm back of some large shell fish. There they stay for life. They grow slowly. A two foot sponge may be all of twenty years old..