this post was submitted on 27 May 2025
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the only one? what about slime molds?
Not an animal
Honest question. How is that sponge an animal and how is "animal" defined? If we grind something through a sieve and it reassembles surely the lifeform can't be too complicated.
Sponge are some of the most simple animals alive. Jellyfish are comparatively not too far off.
Thank you. But are jellyfish really not that far off. Looks like a pretty huge step to me. Jellyfish look complex enough to not just magically reassemble if we grind them through a sieve.
I personally (but I'm not a biologists 🤣) definitely would consider a jellyfish an animal because different cells (at least ot very much looks like that) have different functions and thus throwing it in the meat grinder (even if individual cells are not damaged) I can't imagine how ot could reassemble itself.
But a sponge seems so homogeneous it (I guess) almost doesn't matter what goes where and that's why it can reassemble. That why (I personally) wouldn't think of that as an animal.
Are there other things that are technically animals that are that homogeneous?
Little pieces of a jellyfish can become new jellyfish. They can reproduce sexually or asexually. The Immortal Jellyfish is even weirder. They are some of the simplest multicellular animals after sponge and coral.
Animals are members of kingdom Animalia. One of the unify features of this kingdom is multicellularity. Slime molds are members of the mostly-single-celled protists and they themselves are some of the most complex single celled organisms. Sponges, being very basal animals, are one of the phyla that retains a high degree of regenerative ability that simplicity facilitates while being very much a multicellular organism with all the organization that comes with.
Thank you.