A Phylum of Sponges

Produced by:
Harold Feyman
Dureza
Ela Marie Sofia Celiz
WHAT IS THE PHYLUM
PORIFERA?
Etymology: From the Latin porus for ‘pore‘ and ferre for ‘to bear’.
Hence, porifera for ‘an animal with pores’

 This phylum, under the kingdom Animalia, is mostly

consisted of sessile sponges living in the oceans and seas.

 Sponges are one of the better known groups of

invertebrates.

 Carnivorous sponges live in fresh water while

detritivore sponges are marine animals.

 They lived in the waters for more than 600 million

years.

 They are believed to have covered up half of the marine

coral reefs during the Paleozoic.

 They are considered as sedentary, filter-feeding

metazoans.
Some basic characteristics...
• It has no definite symmetry.

• The body is multicellular, has few tissues and no organs.

• The cells and tissues and surround a water filled space but there is no true
body cavity.

• All are sessile. Some attach themselves to something as an adult.

• Reproduces sexually or asexually. The sexual reproduction can either be

gonochoristic or hermaphroditic.

• It has no nervous system.

• It has a distinct larval stage which is planktonic.

• All are filter feeders.

• It often has a skeleton of spicules.

 The body of a sponge is a collection of a few
different types of cells that are closely arranged in a
gelatinous matrix called a mesohyl, mesoglea, or a
mesenchyme.

WHAT IS THIS MESOHYL?

A mesohyl is a connective tissue of a sponge body wherein

it is supported by skeletal elements. It functions as an
endoskeleton (internal skeleton of an animal) in most sponges,
and is the only skeleton in soft sponges that encrust hard surfaces
as rocks.
There are two kinds of skeletons that the poriferans have: exoskeleton and
endoskeleton.
Endoskeleton
Like vertebrates, sponges also have endoskeletons.
Endoskeletons, as said from the previous slide, is the internal skeletal
system. In sponges, it is actually a layer of covering cells. The layer that
these cells form is called a mesohyl. This mesohyl is usually stiffened by
mineral spicules, spongins fibers or both.
Exoskeleton
Some sponges also excrete exoskeletons. These exoskeletons are
layers of flagellated cells. They lie completely outside their organic
components. For example, sclerosponges or “hard sponges” have massive
calcium carbonate exoskeletons. Pinacocytes from the animal’s skin excrete
the exoskeletons.
 WHAT ARE THESE SO-CALLED
SPICULES?
• They are hard, crystal-like spines that support skeletal-like
structures.

• Normally, they work in conjunction with spongins which are

protein that forms a tough fibrous network throughout the
sponge.

• They are also non-living aggregates of a chemical nature that

are made from either silica, or calcium carbonite.

• They are important in the classification of sponges.

CLASS CALCAREA
•The calcareous sponges of phylum Porifera is identified to have 2 to 4
points on the spicule.

• All species are marine dwellers.

• All sponge body plans are represented by this class: asconoid,

syconoid, leuconoid.

• They are very small, usually 3-4 inches in height.

• There are 400 species existing of this class.

• Generally lack hollow canals.

• They are sedentary filter feeders.

• Their body type can either be radially symmetrical or irregular.

 CLASS DEMOSPONGIAE
• The largest class in phylum Porifera.

• They contain 90% of all species of sponges.

• Predominantly, their structures are

leuconoid.

• Most are marine dwellers but several live in

freshwater areas.

• They reproduce both sexually and asexually.

CLASS HEXACTINELLIDA
• These are sponges with a skeleton made of four or six pointed
silaceous spicules.

• They are often referred to as glass sponges.

• They are relatively uncommon and most are found at

substantial depths.

• They are usually cup-shaped animals with sturdy endoskeletons

made up of fused spicules.

• They have a unique system for rapidly conducting electrical

impulses through their bodies, making them easy to respond to
external stimuli.
• http://www.wikipedia.org/

• http://www.google.com/

• http://images.google.com/

• Microsoft Student Encarta 2009