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Sea sponges rely on a sneezing mechanism to clear their pores, using mucus to flush out debris. This mucus provides food for other marine life.

You might be tempted to say “gesundheit,” but the sea creature’s snot helps feed other marine organisms.

(Inside Science) -- Several thousand years ago tube worms thrived near hydrothermal vents on three seamounts in the central Arctic. When the vents became inactive, they died. Most of the softer organic tissue disappeared quickly, leaving nothing but hard tubes on top of these underwater mountains on Langseth Ridge north of the Norwegian Svalbard Archipelago. There they sat for centuries -- a testament to a lost ecosystem. Then, sponges came along and began to clean up some of the last traces of the tube worms' presence.

New fossils continue to put pressure on the evolutionary narrative of gradualism.

Sponges are arguably the simplest animals and they lack a nervous system, but peculiar cells in their digestive chambers may be evolutionary precursors of neurons