Jack Sponge

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“Nahema, voice log, go. Earth’s last great man joked that the Creator must love stars and beetles, because It made so many of them. Two hundred years later we’ve found a lot of alien life. And guess what? Not many beetles. Sorry, Jack. But look—your Creator’s still playing favorites. Wherever It works, it seems to get started with a sponge.”

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Sponge. Simplest animal. Amoebic cells work together to pump water—in through pores, out through hole (osculum) at top. Feeds on suspended nutrients. Reproduces sexually or by asexual fragmentation.

Presence of spongelike life: ambiguous survival sign. Suggests loosely Earthlike biosphere (not radically hostile). However, large size suggests many available nutrients—either due to a productive ecosystem or a mass dieoff.

Most religious and ethical systems permit harm to sponges.