Sponges are exclusively aquatic and are found today in marine and fresh water. Sponges are benthic creatures, found at all latitudes beneath the world's oceans, and from the intertidal to the deep-sea. Since they are mostly sessile and benthic, and have a delicate water circulation system, sponges cannot tolerate environments with a high rate of sedimentation-their pores are easily clogged and the animals themselves have no defence against burial. Consequently, we find sponges most often in those areas where the water is "clean" and the sedimentation rate low.
Some sponges bore into the shells of bivalves, gastropods, and the colonial skeletons of corals by slowly etching away chips of calcareous material.
All sponges are filter- feeders where organic particles are extracted from water entering through sponge pores. Waste products are expelled outside through the mouth (osculum).
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