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PHYLUM

PORIFERA
SPONGES
Sponges
• Pore-bearing animals
• Most primitive of all animals.
• Phylum Porifera is huge phylum that contains
about 5000 species which lives in seas, lakes
and rivers.
• Most sponges are marine while some are fresh
water species.
• Sessile or non-moving.
• Do not exhibit any symmetry.
• They vary in color—from white, gray, brown to
red, orange, yellow, purple, and black.
The freshwater sponge,
Spongilla lacustris
Marine sponge, yellow tube sponge.
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DIFFERENT COLORS OF SPONGE

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• Sponges are all filter feeders.
• Their body consist of tiny pores, the small
incurrent pores & the large excurrent pores.
• They do not have a nervous system.
• They’re complex colonies of flagellated
unicellular protozoalike organisms.
• The only animal phylum that does not possess
at least 2 distinct embryonic tissue layers.
• Their unique lack of tissue organization has
prompted taxonomists to classify them as
parazoa (next to animals).
• Some sponges are specialized for reproductive
or nutritional purposes, and this slight
organizational complexity gives them a
toehold on the edge of the animal kingdom.
• Sponges include a system of pores (also called
ostia) and canals, through which water passes.
• They do not have any organ.
• They often have a skeleton of spicules.
• They also have a protein in their body called
spongin which helps provide body support.
• They have a hollow space inside.
Structure of a
Sponge.
• Sponges are the simplest animals. They have
no head, arms, legs or organs. Since they have
no stomach and a digestive gut, sponges
depend on a system of water canals in its body
to bring in food and oxygen which also carries
away waste and carbon dioxide. Sponges eat
tiny plants and animals called plankton. To
get the food, flagella circulate the water
through the sponge. The water enters through
the sponge's pores and flows through
chambers called flagellated chambers.
The chambers are called this because each cell
that lines them have a flagellum, a long thread
that whips around to help the water flow. The
water then moves out of the sponge's body
through the osculum, a large opening in the
sponge's body. The tiny animals and plants
that are captured by the cells that line the
chambers are called choanocytes or collar
cells. Each of these cells holds a flagellum.
The ameobacyte or amoeba-like cells digest
the food, captured by the flagellum.
Water Circulation
• The open pores on the surface of the sponge come
in two types. The 'entry' cells are known as ostia,
while the exit cells, which are bigger, are the
oscula, often termed 'excurrent'. Specialised cells,
the choanocytes, allow water into the ostia.
• Water flows through the body of the sponge,
entering at the ostia, circulating around the
canals and chambers, then leaving from the
oscula.The flow of water through the sponge is
unidirectional, driven by the beating of flagella
which line the surface of the chambers.
The water movement through some sponges
is aided by ambient currents passing over
raised 'excurrent' openings, the oscula. This
moving water creates an area of low pressure
above the excurrent openings that assists in
drawing water out of the sponge. Sponges
are capable of regulating the amount of flow
through their bodies by the constriction of
various openings. The volume of water
passing through a sponge can be enormous,
up to 20 000 times its volume in a single 24-
hour period.
Reproduction of Sponges
1. Asexual Reproduction is done through
the formation of buds or gemmules. Buds
are groups of cells that enlarge and attach to
the parent for some time, while gemmules
are groups of cell masses, which are
surrounded by a heavy coat of organic
matter and produced by the parent sponge
— these are capable of growing into adult
sponges.
2. Sexual Reproduction is done when
these sponges develop eggs & sperms.
Sperms shed into the water fertilize the
egg in another sponge by passing
through the incurrent pores. The
fertilized egg develops into a flagellated
larva that escapes from the sponge and
grows into a young sponge after
swimming for a while.
Sexual
Reproduction
of sponges
EXAMPLES OF
SPONGES
Orange Puffball sponge
(Tethya auranti)
Gray moon sponge
(Spheciospongia confoederata)
Ball Sponge
Branching Tube Sponge
(Pseudoceratina crassa)
Colony of Blue Haliclona
Sponge
Baitfish Ball over a Barrel
Sponge
(Xestospongia testudinaria)
Giant Barrel Sponge
(Xestospongia muta)
Economic Uses of Sponge
• The remaining skeletal parts of the sea
sponges are the ones that are used by
humans.
• Soft sponges are for padding for helmets,
portable drinking utensils and municipal
water filters.
• Synthetic sponges, they were used as
cleaning tools, applicators for paints and
ceramic glazes and discreet contraceptives.
KITCHEN SPONGE for cleaning purposes.
For
bathing
Applicators for
paints
Contraceptives
Make
flowerpots
hold water
longer
THE END

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