Phylum Porifera

1. Phylum Porifera
By: Jess Edgar and Alena Thieu

2. Sponges
●invertebrates

●radial symmetry or are asymmetrical

●multicellular but no cell specialization

●living in fresh and marine waters

3. Internal
●spongocoel: central cavity
○covered with choanocytes
■flagellated cell with a collar; generate water
currents and collars trap food particles
●osculum: larger openings
●spicule:
○a needle-like structure or part, such as on of the
mineral structures, supporting the soft tissue of
certain invertebrates

5. Nervous System
●sponges do not have a nervous system; no
brain, no nerve cells
●nerve net
○a diffuse network of neurons that conducts impulses
in all directions from a point of stimulus
●touch or pressure to the outside of a sponge
will cause a local contraction of its body.

6. ●through its pores with canals that move the
water to all throughout the sponge; then the
oxygen from the water is used.



Respiration and Circulation

7. How Sponges Eat (Digestion)
●Sponges are characterized by the possession of a
feeding system unique among animals.
●Poriferans don't have mouths; instead, they have tiny
pores in their outer walls through which water is drawn.
●Cells in the sponge walls filter bacteria from the water
as the water is pumped through the body and out other
larger openings.
●The flow of water through the sponge is unidirectional,
driven by the beating of flagella which line the surface of
chambers connected by a series of canals.
●Heterotrophic
●Suspension feeders

8. ●In all cases, poriferans have a canal system, through which they pump
water.
●Water enters through pores called ostia, flows through canals to a chamber
called a spongocoel, and finally exits through large openings called oscula.

9. Excretion
●A sponge has carbon dioxide and other
wastes removed as the water moves in and
out through the pores.

11. Reproduction
●reproduces by budding and also sexually
●hermaphorodites: individual functions as both male and
female in sexual reproduction by
●producing sperm and eggs.
●dioecious: having the male and female reproductive
organs in seperate individuals.
●eggs: archeocytes (totipotent cells that have the ability
to divide and produce al the differentiated
cells in an organism) or
choanocytes
●sperm: choanocytes

12. Three Distinct Groups
●Hexactinellida
●Demospongia
●Calcarea

13. Hexactinellida
●glass sponges
●viewed as an early branch within Porifera
●much of their tissues are syncitia, extensive
regions of cytoplasm
●possess a unique system for rapidly
conducting electrical impulses across their
bodies, allowing them to react quickly to
external stimuli

14. Demospongia
●most diverse sponge group
●tend to be large
●brightly colored
●reproduce both sexually and asexually
●harvested by divers, then bleached and
marketed to be sold as bath sponges

15. Calcarea
●mainly live in the tropics
●mainly found in shallow waters
●small and dull in color

16. Carnivoruos Sponges
●from the family Cladorhizidae
●they capture small crustaceans with their spicules
●spicule:
○a needle-like structure or part, such as on of the
mineral structures supporting the soft tissue of
certain invertebrates, especially sponges.
●cells migrate to the organism
●digestion takes place extracellularly