Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of the cartoon SpongeBob, died in the early hours of last Monday (27). He had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), the same disease as astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. Hillenburg was a marine biologist by training, which explains why his creation takes place at the bottom of the sea – he came up with the somewhat lysergic idea precisely while teaching a class on the subject.
The SpongeBob you know is quite different from the first one designed by Hillenburg, who was round in shape (no square pants). In 2011, the biologist explained in an interview to the magazine Strange world the reason why the protagonist is a specimen of the most monotonous living being that exists in the ocean: “I wanted the protagonist of the series to be someone innocent and I chose the sea sponge. She is both a funny and a strange animal.”
It is clear that Hillenburg never wanted to reproduce literally, in the drawing, all the characteristics of the animals that inspired him. Therefore, in cartoon, there are squid that aren’t squid, and friendships between prey and predators. A “creative freedom” that annoys some surly biologists like Squidward.
deep nonsense
Beings that get along well in the animated series are great rivals in underwater life
Sponge Bob
– (Nickelodeon/Wikimedia Commons/Assembly over reproduction)
Unlike restless Bob, the real sea sponge (a generic name, which applies to several species) does not move: it is forever attached to the surface on which it was born. Another detail is that she doesn’t look like a dishwashing sponge at all. It actually has the appearance of an irregular cylinder. Most species are hermaphrodites and can choose to reproduce asexually: just tear off a piece and wait for it to grow, like a plant. Some exude toxins to defend themselves against predators.
Patrick
– (Nickelodeon/Unsplash/Montage over playback)
Much to Bob’s dismay, in the real sea, the starfish is a predator of the sea sponge. Real stars aren’t as stupid as Patrick: they can regrow an amputated arm, or cut off a bad one. Despite its apparent simplicity, the taxonomic group to which starfish belong – O of echinoderms – is closest to chordates (i.e. nodes) on the tree of life. In other words, Patrick is a lot more like you than a fly or a snail.
Mr. Krabs
– (Nickelodeon/Unsplash/Montage over playback)
Noting the obvious: there is no mixture of crab and crab; in nature, it’s one or the other. Bob’s boss, despite being the owner of the Siri Cascudo snack bar, is a crab (fortunately, by the way: it would be curious to sell hamburgers made with the meat of members of its species. It’s called cannibalism). The last pair of crab legs is adapted for swimming, which does not happen with the character.
Squidward
– (Nickelodeon/Wikimedia Commons/Assembly over reproduction)
Bob’s grouchy co-worker is an octopus, not a squid. It can be seen from the shape of its body: more rounded, and without the fins that squid have. But even for an octopus he is wrong: octopuses have eight arms, not six as in the drawing. At the bottom of the sea, the octopus includes the sea sponge in its menu. Coincidence? Certainly not.
Gary
A snail, a herbivore belonging to the mollusc phylum, would never live peacefully next to an octopus, which is one of its main predators. Run Gary. As fast as you can. Which is not so fast. Submarine snails (in Brazil known generically by the name of búzios) can reach half a meter in length. How about a baby-sized slug?