Sarà, M. (2004). Sponge peculiarities and their impact on general biology on the threshold of 2000. In: Pansini M, Pronzato R, Bavestrello G, Manconi R, Sarà M (eds) Sponge Science in the New Millenium. Papers contributed to the VI International Sponge Conference Rapallo (Italy) 29 September – 5 October 2002. Bollettino dei Musei e degli Istituti Biologici dell'Universitá di Genova. 68, 149-159.
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Sarà, M.
2004
Sponge peculiarities and their impact on general biology on the threshold of 2000. <i>In</i>: Pansini M, Pronzato R, Bavestrello G, Manconi R, Sarà M (eds) Sponge Science in the New Millenium. Papers contributed to the VI International Sponge Conference Rapallo (Italy) 29 September – 5 October 2002.
Bollettino dei Musei e degli Istituti Biologici dell’Universitá di Genova
68, 149-159
Publication
Proceedings of the 6th International Sponge Conference
A survey of sponge research trends from 1870 to 2000 shows a turning point around 1970, with a growing expansion in number of papers, the rise of new fields such as ecology and the explosion of the new sector of applied research in the chemistry of natural products. Sponge research has had a major impact on general biology after the acknowledgement that sponges evolved early from a common ancestor with other animals. Sponge peculiarities, with the lack of tissues and organs and of well defined nervous and muscle systems, represent a key point to understand further animal evolution and their changes in organization. A look to the future of sponge science shows the need for an extension of biological and genetic molecular research but also of basic knowledge coming from taxonomy and ecology. The here analyzed sponge research trends show that these sectors are in expansion also to- day.