ANIMAL KINGDOM

PHYLUM PORIFERA
General Characteristics
•  The
term Porifera is actually the scientific name given to the
group of organisms known commonly as sponges. 
• Porifera are exclusively aquatic animals. They are found in
both fresh and salt water, and in shallow or deep water.
Sponges come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. They can be
cylindrical in shape, like the yellow tube sponge Aplysina
fistularis, wide-mouthed and triangular, like the purple vase
sponge Niphates digitalis, sheet-like and encrusting, like the
red Spiratrella coccinea, or long and rope-like, like the grey
species of Callyspongia.
PHYLUM PORIFERA
General Characteristics
Classification of Phylum Porifera
Based on the type of skeleton system the phylum Porifera is
divided into three classes
• Class 1: Calcarea or Calcispongiae
• Class 2: Hexactinellida or Hyalospongiae.
• Class 3: Demospongiae
PHYLUM PORIFERA
Calcarea or
Calcispongiae
(calcarius: lime / calcium))
• Habitat: Exclusively marine
• Habit: Solitary or colonial nature.
• Endoskeleton: calcareous spicules
composed of calcium carbonate
• Symmetry: Radially symmetry
• Shape: Cylindrical shape
• Examples: Sycon, Leucosolenia
Leucosolenia(right): Sycon(left)
 PHYLUM PORIFERA
Hexactinellida or hyalospongiae
(Hex: six, actin: ray, idea: terminal)
• Habitat: Exclusively marine (deep
sea)
• Habit: Solitary in nature.
• Endoskeleton: six- rayed siliceous
spicules.
• Symmetry: Radially symmetry
• Shape: Cylindrical shape. Euplectella(left); Hyalonemma(right)
• Examples: Euplectella, Hyalonemma
PHYLUM PORIFERA
Demospongiae
(Demos: frame)
• Habitat: Mostly marine and some are freshwater
• Endoskeleton: Siliceous spicules or sponging
fibres or both or none.
• The spicules are monaxon or tetraxon but never
six-rayed.
• Symmetry: asymmetrical.
• Shape: Irregular
• Canal system complicated.
• Spongocoeal is totally absent.
• Examples:  Spongilla.
PHYLUM PORIFERA
Mode of Nutrition
Sponges have a unique feeding system among
animals. Instead of a mouths they have tiny
pores (ostia) in their outer walls through which
water is drawn. Cells in the sponge walls filter
food from the water as the water is pumped
through the body and the osculum ("little
mouth"). The flow of water through the sponge is
in one direction only, driven by the beating of
flagella which line the surface of chambers
connected by a series of canals.
PHYLUM PORIFERA
Mode of Nutrition
• Sponges do not have a nervous,
digestive or circulatory system. They
rely on keeping up a constant water
flow through their bodies to obtain
food and oxygen and to remove
wastes.
PHYLUM PORIFERA
Mode of Reproduction
PHYLUM CNIDARIA
General Characteristics
• Cnidaria is one of the more primitive animal phyla. It includes aquatic
organisms such as jellyfish, sea anemones, corals, and hydras. Most cnidarians
are marine, although a few, such as the well-known hydra, are freshwater
species.
• All cnidarians are characterized by radially symmetric body plans, rather than
the bilaterally symmetric body plans that are found in most other animal phyla.
Although cnidarians are more advanced than sponges (phylum Porifera) in that
they possess distinct tissue layers, they lack many of the features of more
advanced animal phyla, such as internal organs and central nervous systems.
Most cnidarians possess tentacles, and many also have nematocysts (specialized
stinging cells). Both are involved in feeding.
PHYLUM CNIDARIA
General Characteristics
Classification of Phylum Cnidaria/Coelenterata
• The Phylum Coelenterate is divided into three classes on the
bases of the development zooids

• Class 1: Hydrozoa

• Class 2: Scyphozoan or Scyphomedusae

• Class 3: Anthozoa or Actinozoa

Hydra(left); Obelia(right)
PHYLUM CNIDARIA
Scyphozoan or Scyphomedusae
• Habitat: exclusively marine

• Habit: solitary, freely swimming

• Medusa is dominant and it is Large bell or

• Polyps is short lived or absent

• Mesogloea is usually cellular

• Examples: Aurelia aurita (Jelly
Aurelia aurita(left); Rhizostoma(right)
fishe), Rhizostoma
PHYLUM CNIDARIA
Anthozoa or Actinozoa
(Anthos: flower; zoios: animal “flower
like animals”)
• Habitat: exclusively marine
• Habit: Solitary or colonial
• Medusa stage is absent
• Mesogloea contains fibrous
connective tissue and amoeboid cells.
• Examples: Metridium (sea
anemone), Telesto, Tubipora, Xenia
Metridium(left); Tubipora(right)
PHYLUM CNIDARIA
Mode of Nutrition
• Cnidarians are primarily predators: they catch and eat other
organisms. Cnidarians capture food via stinging tentacles, harpoons
and even tangling nets, but poisonous stingers nematocysts are
the most common (see right). Animals in the phylum Cnidaria eat a
variety of food. Some of these animals include large protists, crabs,
worms, fish and even other cnidarians! As said in class, some
groups of coral (cnidaria) have a symbiotic relationship with algae.
The algae feed on carbon dioxide from the coral, photosynthesizes
and releases oxygen. In turn, the coral is given energy filled
carbohydrates and both organisms prosper. Digestion is very simple
in Cnidarians. The cell membrane is very thin so most waste is able
to be diffusedthrough the cells. Also, any undigested food is
expelled from the gastrovascular cavity, out the mouth and into
the water.
PHYLUM CNIDARIA
Mode of Reproduction
• Reproduction may be sexual
or asexual (budding). Some
members exhibit a complex
life cycle involving the
alternation of the polyp
(asexual stage) and the
medusa (sexual stage).