Examples of porifera

\( \newcommand\) • • • • • • • Skills to Develop • Describe the organizational features of the simplest multicellular organisms • Explain the various body forms and bodily functions of sponges The invertebrates, or invertebrata, are animals that do not contain bony structures, such as the cranium and vertebrae. The simplest of all the invertebrates are the Parazoans, which include only the phylum Porifera: the sponges (Figure \(\PageIndex\): Sponges are members of the Phylum Porifera, which contains the simplest invertebrates. (credit: Andrew Turner) Morphology of Sponges The morphology of the simplest sponges takes the shape of a cylinder with a large central cavity, the spongocoel, occupying the inside of the cylinder. Water can enter into the spongocoel from numerous pores in the body wall. Water entering the spongocoel is extruded via a large common opening called the osculum. However, sponges exhibit a range of diversity in body forms, including variations in the size of the spongocoel, the number of osculi, and where the cells that filter food from the water are located. While sponges (excluding the hexactinellids) do not exhibit tissue-layer organization, they do have different cell types that perform distinct functions. Pinacocytes, which are epithelial-like cells, form the outermost layer of sponges and enclose a jelly-like substance called mesohyl. Mesohyl is an extracellular matrix consisting of a collagen-like gel with suspended cells that perform various funct...

Denise DeCooman Denise DeCooman was a teaching assistant for the General Zoology course at California University of Pennsylvania while she earned her Master's of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from fall semester of 2015 and spring of 2017. She also has a Bachelor's of Science in Biological Sciences from California University. She has been writing instructional content for an educational consultant based out of the greater Pittsburgh area since January 2020. • Instructor Porifera Sponges Porifera is a Phylum of sponges that belongs to • they lack cell walls, which are observed in plants and many different bacteria • they are heterotrophic, which means they rely on external sources of nutrients and do not produce their own food • they are multicellular • they have at least one developmental form that is motile (capable of independent movement) However, poriferans have certain characteristics which make them unique from any other animal group. While sponges are multicellular, they do not have true tissues. Instead, they have two different layers of cells. The cells of sponges are differentiated, which means there are different cell types that carry out different functions. All sponges are aquatic and, while most are found in marine habitats, a few are found in brackish or bodies of fresh water. Sponges are primarily filter feeders, which fits well with the fact that most are sessile, and attach themselves to a substrate in their juvenile, motile form and typical...

Phylum Porifera Examples and Characteristics With members that were considered plants before 1765, the phylum Porifera consists of simple multicellular animals commonly known as sponges. Currently, the group is estimated to have over 8,000 species; the majority of which are marine. As the name suggests, their bodies are covered with small holes/pores. This is one of their primary characteristics. Some examples of animals in this phylum include: · Spongilla (E.g. Spongilla alba, Spongilla chaohuensis, Spongilla aspinosa, and Spongilla friabilis, etc) · Cliona (E.g. Cliona sulphurea, Cliona griffithsii, Cliona coccinea, and Cliona Grant, etc) · Sycon (E.g. Sycon album, Sycon antarcticum, Sycon asperum, and Sycon barbadense, etc) · Hyalonema (E.g. Hyalonema abyssale, Hyalonema aculeatum, Hyalonema azuerone, and Hyalonema agujanum, etc) · Euplectella (E.g. Euplectella crassistellata, Euplectella aspera, Euplectella gibbsa, and Euplectella jovis, etc) Anatomy/Morphology As mentioned, members of the phylum Porifera known as sponges are simple organisms. As such, they don't have true organs. Unlike most animals, the majority of sponges are asymmetrical. This is mostly the result of continuous morphogenesis. However, some of the species display radial symmetry. Most are also small in size (a few centimeters) with varying shapes (tube-shaped, branched, etc). However, some can grow to be over 6 feet tall and are easily recognizable. Like some polyps, the majority of Porifera species...

Know the definition, characteristics, classification, and some examples of sponges that are spread all over the world. In this phylum, there are about 5000 species of animals scattered in waters around the world, especially in the sea and each species has its own characteristics. Porifera definition The definition of a sponge is an organism that has pores so that water can flow through it. Poriferam is a phylum in Animalia that belongs to the category without backbones or invertebrates. Phylum Porifera, also known as sponges or sponges, are the simplest or most primitive multi-celled organisms. This is because the collection of cells is not yet organized and does not have true organs. Even though it is an animal, its life is sedentary, slow-moving or not even at all. The size of the phylum Porifera animals varies depending on the type, some are only a few centimeters high, and some reach meters high. Its habitat is scattered in water areas such as seas and fresh waters. Because they are animals, these organisms cannot make their own food. They need other organisms to fulfill their food, for example by eating small organisms such as plankton. Porifera characteristics • Habitat in the waters such as in the sea and freshwater. • There are various body shapes such as tubes, ovals, sponges, and so on. • The porous body wall is called Ostium, and usually, the largest pore is located at the top. • It doesn’t have true organs, so we can’t tell which mouth, eyes, and so on. • They ...

The porifera or sponges are invertebrate aquatic animals belonging to the Parazoa subkingdom. It is believed that there are between 5,000 and 10,000 species of porifera today throughout the world. For example: leucosolenia, sycon, agelas oroides. Although most inhabit salt water, some varieties live in fresh water. Since they are animals almost motionless (since they can only move up to 4 millimeters in a day) they live at the bottom of the water (up to 9 thousand meters deep). Sponges live in water up to 9 thousand meters deep. Porifera feeding the porifera they have no stomach: They feed through a process of absorbing nutrients that are carried by the water and enter their pores. Their diet depends on water currents and, after conserving the necessary nutrients, they expel the water. There are some exceptions of carnivorous porifera that feed on crustaceans, algae or cyanobacteria. porifera structure These invertebrate animals do not have muscles, internal organs, or nerves. Their structure It presents radial symmetry and is composed of two layers of cells: an external one ( pinacoderm) and another internal (choanoderm) and, eBetween both, a space that receives the name of mesowire. • Outer layer (pinacoderm). The outer layer has a large number of pores and is made up of cells that are called pinacocytes and is covered with a special cell called porocyte. • inner layer (choanoderm). The inner layer is made up of cells (called choanocytes) that allow the passage of water ...

Overview Class Calcarea includes sponges that are small in size and less colorful than other sponge classes. Calcareous sponges have spicules made of magnesium calcite (MgCO3), or may lack spicules altogether. The most common spicule shape are triactines with three pointed spires, which are shown in the figure below from et al., 2012. They are, by far, the sponge class with the highest diversity of spicule and body forms. While the vast majority of ancient Calcarea inhabited shallow water throughout their fossil record, modern species have been found across all depths. Some recent Antarctic expeditions have discovered a "sponge kingdom," where at least five Calcarea sponge species have been found at depths in excess of 4400 m. Calcarea diversity. Original caption: "A. Clathrina rubra (Calcinea, Clathrinida), NW Mediterranean Sea (photo courtesy Jean Vacelet); B. Calcinean spicules: equiangular and equiradiate triactines (photo courtesy Jean Vacelet); C. Guancha lacunosa (Calcinea, Clathrinida), NW Mediterranean Sea; D. Petrobiona massiliana (Calcaronea, Lithonida), two specimens from caves, NW Mediterranean Sea. Spicule complement of P. massiliana : from left to right pugiole, sagittal triactines, microdiactine (photos courtesy Jean Vacelet); E. Calcaronean spicules: sagittal (inequiangular) triactines and diactines; F. Syconoid aquiferous system from Sycon ciliatum (SEM photo, courtesy Louis De Vos, ULB); G. Sycon ciliatum (Calcaronea, Leucosolenida), specimen about 10 cm...

\( \newcommand\) • • • • • • • • • The kingdom of animals is informally divided into invertebrate animals, those without a backbone, and vertebrate animals, those with a backbone. Although in general we are most familiar with vertebrate animals, the vast majority of animal species, about 95 percent, are invertebrates. Invertebrates include a huge diversity of animals, millions of species in about 32 phyla, which we can just begin to touch on here. The sponges and the cnidarians represent the simplest of animals. Sponges appear to represent an early stage of multicellularity in the animal clade. Although they have specialized cells for particular functions, they lack true tissues in which specialized cells are organized into functional groups. Sponges are similar to what might have been the ancestor of animals: colonial, flagellated protists. The cnidarians, or the jellyfish and their kin, are the simplest animal group that displays true tissues, although they possess only two tissue layers. Sponges Animals in subkingdom Parazoa represent the simplest animals and include the sponges, or phylum Porifera (Figure \(\PageIndex\): The sponge’s basic body plan is shown. Physiological Processes in Sponges Despite their lack of complexity, sponges are clearly successful organisms, having persisted on Earth for more than half a billion years. Lacking a true digestive system, sponges depend on the intracellular digestive processes of their choanocytes for their energy intake. The lim...

sponge, any of the primitive multicellular aquatic animals that General features Early naturalists regarded the sponges as plants because of their frequent branching form and their lack of obvious movement. The The phylum Porifera may be divided into three classes on the basis of the Importance The soft elastic skeletal frameworks of certain species of the class Demospongiae— e.g., Spongia officinalis, Hippospongia communis, S. zimocca, S. graminea—have been familiar household items since ancient times. In Match the Baby Animal to Its Mama Quiz The living sponge is a mass of cells and fibres, its interior permeated by an intricate system of canals that open as holes of various sizes through the tough dark brown or black skin, which may be hairy from fibre ends that pierce it. Only after it has been completely cleaned of its millions of living cells does a sponge resemble the sponge of commerce; i.e., a soft and elastic spongin skeletal framework. Commercially valuable sponges, which may be found from tidal level to a depth of about 200 feet, usually are harvested by hooking or harpooning in shallow waters, by Sponges are valuable from a scientific point of view because of their unusual cellular organization (the cells do not form tissues or organs such as those found in other animals), their ability to regenerate lost parts, and their biochemical features (they have many e.g., many types of animals live in sponges. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to e...