Sponge v Jelly

 Fun ancient-animal showdown 🧽 vs 🪼

Sponges came first.

Sponges (phylum Porifera) are generally considered the earliest animals, showing up over 600 million years ago. They’re super simple—no true tissues, no nerves, no muscles—basically living filter systems. That simplicity is a big clue they’re close to the starting line of animal life.

Jellyfish (cnidarians, and sometimes people also mean comb jellies) appeared later. They’re still ancient, but they have:

• true tissues
• nerves
• muscles
  which suggests they evolved after simpler animals like sponges.

⚠️ Tiny science footnote, because biology loves drama:

Some studies argue that comb jellies (ctenophores) might be the earliest branch instead of sponges. But the mainstream, textbook answer is still:

🥇 Sponges = first animals

🥈 Jellies = later

If you want, I can also explain what even counts as an “animal” at that point in evolution—it gets weird fast.