Jar Sponge
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Category
- Anchored Life
- Subcategory
- Sponges
- Entries in Sponges
- 11
- Words
- 165
PDA entry
- Symphon pithos, the large jar sponge. A filter-feeder that produces antibiotics and other chemicals in bulk. Possibly a runaway crop.
- 1. Sponge morphology
- Like both Protean and Earth sponges, a simple animal without organs. Pumps water in through pores and out through its central aperture, filtering nutrients.
- 2. Pharmacological factory
- A single strain of symbiotic bacteria produces produces potent antibiotics which kill other microbes. The sponge itself uses genes apparently transferred from extinct symbiotes to produce large amounts of a single chemical - such as antibiotics, resins, plastics or steroids. This chemical product pools in the jar's center.
- 3. Runaway crop?
- The jar sponge's wide, accessible aperture and pure chemical product suggest it may be a crop.
- 4. Alternative hypothesis
- The jar sponge may have been selected by a forager which tended to destroy smaller or less chemically productive sponges.
- Assessment: a possible sign of re-wilding after the collapse of agriculture.
- Trivia: in the original Greek, the myth of Pandora's box actually refers to a pithos (jar).
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