PHYLUM PORIFERA

Sponges are animals of the Phylum porifera (meaning pore bears).

Sponges are a diverse group with about 5000 species known across the world.

sponges are primarily marine, but around 150 species live in fresh water
 General characteristic:
 1. Sponges have a system of pores and canals, allowing water to circulate
through them
 2. Sponges are asymmetrical.
 3. Many sponges have internal skeletons of spongin (a modified type of
collagen protein) and/or spicules (silica or calcium carbonate).
 4. Sponges are multicellular, Diploblasts animals.
 5. Sponges consisting of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin
layers of cells.
 6. Sponges have unspecialized cells that can transform into other types and
that often migrate between the main cell layers and the mesohyl.
 7. Sponges do not have nervous, digestive or circulatory systems, Instead,
most rely on maintaining a constant water flow through their bodies to obtain
food and oxygen and to remove wastes.
 All sponges are sessile aquatic animals. 9. While most of the approximately
5,000–10,000 known species feed on bacteria and other food particles in the
water, some host photosynthesizing microorganisms as endosymbionts and
these microorganisms often produce more food and oxygen than they
consume. A few species of sponge that live in food-poor environments have
become carnivores that prey mainly on small crustaceans. 10.Most species use
sexual reproduction, releasing sperm cells into the water to fertilize ova . A
few species reproduce by budding
 4. Class: Classification of phylum porifera :

 1. Class: Calacaea

 This class have two orders I. Order: Homocoela ….leucosolenia II. Order:

Heterocoela…..Sycon

 2. Class: Hexactinellida ( glass sponges)

 3. Class: Demospongia
 Type of cells in sponges

 1. Pinacocytes are flat cells form a single-layered external skin of sponges,

they are thin, leathery and tightly packed together 2. Porocyte are unique,
elongated, tubular cells ,extended through the jelly having their base in the
covering layer while apex reaches the paragastric between the choanocyte ,
that act as valves to regulate the flow of water into the spongocoel, from
surrounding aquatic habitat. The pore through which water flows in is called
ostium (singular). ostia (plural). 3. Amoebocytes (or archaeocytes), they move
throughout the mesohyl in an amoeba-like fashion.
 These cells are changed from type to another Amoebocytes have a variety of

functions: delivering nutrients from choanocytes to other cells within the

sponge, giving rise to eggs for sexual reproduction (which remain in the

mesohyl), delivering phagocytized sperm from choanocytes to eggs, and

differentiating into more-specific cell types. Such as: collencytes,

sclerocytes, spongocytes.
 Gland cells 3 5. Myocytes ("muscle cells") conduct signals and cause parts of

the animal to contract. 6. Choanocytes (“collar cells”) The inner surface is

covered with choanocytes, these cells with cylindrical or conical collars

(microvilli) surrounding one flagellum per choanocyte. 7. Grey cells" act as

sponges' equivalent of an immune system.

 Types of sponges 1. Asconoid: sponges have the simplest type of organization.
Perforated by pores. Small and tube shaped, water enters the sponge through
dermal pores and flows into the spongcoel. Which Choanocyte (collar cell) are
present. There is a single opening to the outside called osculum. 2. Syconoid :
sponges tend to be larger than asconoid, have a tubular body with a single
osculum, the body wall is thicker and the pores that penetrate it are longer
forming system of canals these canals are lined by collar cells, the flagella of
the cells move water from the outside into the spongcoel and out the
osculum.
 Reproduction in sponges:
 1. Asexual reproduction: Sponges have three asexual methods of
reproduction:
 Fragmentation, Budding; The bud thus formed grows outward to produce a
small individual, which either remains attached with the parent individual or
gets detached and attached to a nearby rock to grow into colony. Fresh water
sponge as well as several marine species, form resistant structure called
Gemmules; are specialised bodies which survive during unfavourable
conditions such as drying or cold and germinate to produce new sponges.
Gemmules are aggregates of sponges' tissues and food material covered by
thick hard coating containing spicules or sponge fibers.
 2. Sexual reproduction: most sponges are hermaphrodite, same individual
produce sperms and ova. But in some species sexes are separated Although
most sponges are hermaphrodite but crossfertilization is the rule because
eggs and sperms are produced at different times. Oocytes are produced inside
the body and remain inside mesoglea waiting for fertilization. sperms leave
the body of sponge through osculum, then from water enter the body of
another sponge through canal system and reach choanocytes which transport
the sperm body without tail to the mature ova that wait in the mesogloea.
The sperm nucleus then fuses with the nucleus of ovum, (fertilization), then
formation of a larval stage (gastrula) which swims and settles on a rock with
and grows to form little sponge - Monoecious - Dioecious


 The soft elastic skeletal frameworks of certain species of the class
Demospongiae—e.g., Spongia officinalis  S. graminea—have been familiar
household items since ancient times.
 In ancient Greece and Rome, sponges were used to apply paint, as mops, and
by soldiers as substitutes for drinking vessels. During the Middle Ages, burned
sponge was reputed to have therapeutic value in the treatment of various
diseases. Natural sponges now are used mostly in arts and crafts such as
pottery and jewelry making, painting and decorating, and in
surgical medicine. 
 Synthetic sponges have largely replaced natural ones for household use.