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orange devil's finger
yellow ball sponge
Cinachyra allocladia
Axinella polycapella
garlic sponge
yellow boring sponge
Cliona celata
Lissodendoryx isodictyalid
Porifera means "pore bearer"
There are three main classes of Porifera which depend on there bone structure.
Those classes include:
They are filter feeders.
There are about 9,000
identified species
while only about 100 are
found in freshwater
environments.
All of a porifera's nutrition is gained through
filter feeding meaning that they are
heterotrophic. Filter feeding is the process
by which a sponge uses its flagella to push
water through its many pores to obtain
nutrients from the water.
All waste is filtered out of the Osculum, which is pointed out in the picture to the right. Most of its waste include particles that were taken into the pores that aren't pulled into the archaeocytes.
A sponges diet mainly consists of plankton,
which are filtered through the choanocytes
and into the archaeocytes, where they will be
digested.
Most sponges are hermaphrodites, meaning that they can reproduce with any other sponge of their species. This is a great advantage since sponges are stuck in one place most of their lives. This works by one sponge releasing sperm into the water and carried by the currents into another sponge.
Sponges require oxygen to respire. Since they live in shallow water they can retrieve oxygen somewhat easily. However, sponges sometimes form a symbiotic relationship with algae in order to get oxygen from the algae and give carbon dioxide in return. When the oxygen is absorbed into the archaeocyte, it is then transported to the rest of the cells to be created into energy.
Another way sponges reproduce is by fragmenting, a process which is caused by damaging the sponge and pieces of the sponge drift to new location and grow into new, fully grown sponge.
For most of a sponges life, they do not move from the place that they settle. The only time they are actively mobile is when the young sponge is released from the mother sponge. Although they do not move themselves, they use the currents to move about until they land on a suitable place to settle and grow into an adult sponge.
Bibliography
"Porifera: The Cells." Organisation of the Poriferan Body. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/porifera/pororg.html>.
"Phylum Porifera." Http://www.biology.iastate.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2012
"Phylum Porifera." Phylum Porifera. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.woodbridge.tased.edu.au/mdc/phylum_porifera.htm>.
"Phylum Porifera." Phylum Porifera. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.infusion.allconet.org/webquest/PhylumPorifera.html>.
Like I mentioned before, porifera use filter feeding to bring nutrients into their body. To transport nutrients to other cells from the archaeocytes, it sends them through the pinacocyte to reach other cells.
Sponges have no nervous system, but the pinacocytes surrounding the pores do contract automatically when touched or come in contact with irritating chemicals to prevent damage to the inside of the sponge.