Belinda the surprisingly busy sea sponge takes a whole day to sneeze [Video]

Belinda the sea sponge has a lot going on for an animal that can’t go anywhere. 

Canadian researchers have used four years of time-lapse footage from the sea floor of British Columbia to paint a picture of “the daily life of a busy sponge,” says University of Alberta marine scientist Sally Leys.

While watching a sea sponge in real time can be “rather boring,” Leys says the footage shows Belinda is, in fact, “extremely active,” bobbing and twitching, receiving visitors, protecting itself from threats, and altering its shape and colour to adapt to changes in its environment. 

“It’s a very charismatic sponge,” Leys, co-author of a new study about Belinda, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

The findings, by researchers at the U of A and the University of Victoria, were published recently in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series.

“Just goes to show that there is no such thing as a ‘primitive animal,'” Verena Tunnicliffe, a University …