会打“打喷嚏”的深海海绵
科学家拍到深海海绵“打喷嚏”
You probably don’t think you have much in common with the creatures that inhabit the floor of the deep sea. Most of the animals that endure the intense pressure and lack of sunlight are, well, downright strange. Sea sponges are one such creature and they come in many shapes and sizes. As surprising as it seems, one particular variety of sea sponge, called a glass sponge, shares something in common with humans and many terrestrial animals: It sneezes.
你可能不认为你和海底生物有什么共同之处。大多数承受着巨大压力和缺乏阳光的动物都是非常奇怪的。海海绵就是这样一种生物，它们有各种各样的形状和大小。令人惊讶的是，有一种特殊的海绵，叫做玻璃海绵，它与人类和许多陆生动物有一个共同之处:它会打喷嚏。
The “sneeze” itself isn’t particularly dramatic, but it’s certainly noticeable. It’s also pretty weird. As you can see in the video below, the sponge, which consists of a stalk with a wine-glass-like white “cup” on the end, can be seen expanding and contracting. At first, scientists were puzzled by the odd behavior but eventually were able to come up with a possible explanation.
“打喷嚏”本身并不特别引人注目，但肯定是值得注意的。这也很奇怪。正如你在下面的视频中看到的，这个海绵，由一个末端有一个葡萄酒杯状的白色“杯”的柄组成，可以看到它在扩张和收缩。起初，科学家们对这种奇怪的行为感到困惑，但最终还是找到了一种可能的解释。
“There is precedent for sponges contracting and expanding,” Amanda Kahn, co-author of the research, said in a statement. “Basically, there’s an ‘ahh‘ when the sponge expands and the ‘-choo’ when it contracts those canals.”
这项研究的合著者阿曼达·卡恩在一份声明中说：“海绵收缩和扩张是有先例的。“基本上，海绵膨胀时会发出‘啊’声，收缩时会发出‘嘀嗒’声。”
Sea sponges are filter feeders, meaning that they snag whatever tiny particles float by as water flows around and through them. However, not everything that gets caught up in the sponge is edible and without a mechanism to expel unwanted material, the sponge would be far less efficient at getting the nutrients it needs.
海绵是滤食者，也就是说，当水在它们周围流过时，它们会截住任何漂浮的微小颗粒。然而，并不是所有被困在海绵里的东西都是可食用的，如果没有排出不需要物质的机制，海绵获得所需营养的效率会低得多。
This “sneezing” behavior is thought to be the sponge’s natural reaction to unwanted material, pushing out irritating bits that get caught before relaxing again and resuming their normal feeding behavior. Each sneeze can last as little as an hour or as long as several weeks. In the time-lapse images, they appear short, but these actions take a while for the tiny sponges.
这种“打喷嚏”的行为就是海绵对不需要的物质的自然反应，在再次放松和恢复正常的进食行为之前，把被抓住的没用的部分排出。每个喷嚏可以持续一个小时或数周。在延时拍摄的照片中，它们看起来很短，但这些动作对微小的海绵来说需要一段时间。
