The Shape of Life - 09/08/07

Episode 1 – Organisms (Sponges)

1. What organism is thought to be the first multi-cellular animal? Ancient Sponge

2. How is it the same (3 ex) and diff (3 ex) from animals today?

Animals Today
- move
- feed themselves
- reproduce and care for their young
- engage in fear territorial boundaries

Sponges
- mysterious (have lots of secrets)
- no definite shape
- 9,000 different species
- live both in cold and warm places
- vibrant animal
- cells are unique in the animal kingdom
- cells have a unique way of working together
- does not have a heart, nervous system or blood
- perform many responsibilities
- continuously re-invent themselves
- no other plant or animal can resurrect themselves the way sponges do

3. How do scientists know it’s an animal? Through a process - Gene Sequencing

4. What evidence do scientists have to prove that other animals (multi-cellular) evolved from this organism? Through DNA testing which proved that all animals evolved from the same blue print

5. What more do you want to know? How many different species of sponges live in our ocean, the Pacific Ocean?

Additional Information:

Way of feeding of a Sponge: they are a living filtering machine sucking water and filtering out particals. 1 ton of water = 1 ounce of food

Sex life of a Sponge: their sex life is affected through pumping. Pumping = feeding and reprodcution.

I enjoyed this movie very much because it was very detailed and understandable. Most especially learning that we evolved from a sponge, "DYNAMIC!"

CITE: pictures obtained from http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en&q