1. Porifera

2. Phylum Porifera – the sponges
Porus (pore) + Fera (bearing) Abundant marine group with some fresh water species. Can range in size from a few mm high to 1-2 meters.

3. Classification Kingdom Animalia (animals) Phylum Porifera (sponges)
Classes:
1. Calcarea (calcium carbonate )- having spicules, only class with asconoid and synconoid canals
2. Demosponginae (horn sponges, like the bath sponge) 90 % of all sponges
3. Scleropongiae (coralline or tropical reef sponges)
4. Hexactinellida (glass sponges). Mostly deep, cold water

4. Common Examples
Glassy Sponge

5. Common Examples
Glassy Sponge
Encrusting Sponge

6. Common Examples
Glassy Sponge
Encrusting Sponge
Finger Sponge

7. Common Examples Glassy Sponge Encrusting Sponge Finger Sponge
Tube Sponge

8. Common Examples Glassy Sponge Encrusting Sponge Finger Sponge
Tube Sponge
Orange Sponge

9. Characteristics Porifera are asymmetrical
No organs, mouth, digestive system or nervous tissue.
Their bodies are porous, with canals and chambers thru which a water current flows,
One or more internal cavities lined with choanocytes.

10. Simplest Multicellular Organism
Classified by their skeleton
Pump 22.5 liters (on average) of water a day through it’s body

11. No mouth organs, systems, digestive tract, anus, nerve cells.
Surface perforated by numerous pores. These outer pores are called the pinacocytes
Incurrent openings are small and numerous (called ostia)
Excurrent - few and large

12. Internal cavities.
Interior is hollow (called the spongocoel) or can be permeated by numerous channels.
Some or all interior spaces are lined by specialized cells called choanocytes. These cells beat and pull water through the ostia.
-The mesohyl lies between the inner and outer cell layers. It contains a jelly like fluid called the mesoglea.

13. Sponge Anatomy 101

14. How do sponges eat? Sponges are suspension feeders.
Water brings in food that is trapped by the choanocytes and transferred to the rest of the sponge by cells called archaeocytes.

15. How do sponges eat?
choanocytes
amebocytes

17. Sponge Organization
The body is supported by an endoskeleton of spongin (a form of collagen) and/or tiny spicules (made of calcium or silica).

18. Spicules calcium carbonate microscopic geometric
all over sponge’s body
fingerprint of sponge

19. Canal Systems Three major types:
Asconoid-the simplest type of organization. Small and tube shaped, water enters the sponge through dermal pores and flows into the interior.

20. Asconoid

21. Canal Systems
Syconoid-larger versions of asconoids, still having just a single osculum. However, the body wall is generally thicker and more complex with incurrent canals rather than simple pores.

22. Syconoid

23. Canal Systems
Leuconoid-the most complex in design in that not all the chambers are flagellated.
Water flowing in through incurrent canals is pumped through the chambers and expelled via one of a series of oscula.
Best adapted to increase size.

24. Leuconoid

25. Sponge Reproduction

26. Cool Stuff – Regeneration!
Tremendous ability to repair and restore lost parts.
Sponge tissue has some similarity to human connective tissue. Could lead to aid in tissue transplantation.
Asexual Reproduction
Asexual budding can produce new sponges.
Sexual Reproduction
Most sponges are hermaphroditic and can internally fertilize themselves.

27. Importance of Sponges Reefs provide habitat for many animals
Vacuums of the sea -- clean up the sea floor/oceans
Sponges are a commercial venture
Several medicinal compounds, including antibiotics, antivirual drugs, and drugs for leukemia come from sponges.

29. Branching tube sponge

30. Stove pipe sponge

31. Vase sponge

32. Barrel sponge

33. Ball sponges

34. Rope Sponges

38. Question #1
Which of the following characteristics makes sponges unique among other animals?
They are multicellular.
They are heterotrophic.
They do not have a mouth or gut.
They are capable of reproducing sexually.

39. Question #2
What type of cellular structure does a choanocyte use to help create the current inside a sponge?
cilium
flagellum
spongellium
pseudopodium

40. Question #3
The skeleton of a sponge includes tiny crystal-like structures that are called
spongin
spicules
collagen
choanocytes

41. Question #4
Which of the following sponge body types would you expect to find in this sponge from the video?
Asconoid
Syconoid
Leuconoid

42. Question #5
Which of the four classes of sponges includes sponges with both silica and calcium carbonate in their skeletons?
Calcarea
Hexactinellida
Demospongiae
Sclerospongiae