Sponges

1. Sponges All You Need to Know

2. What Are Sponges? Sponges, also called Porifera, are the simplest animals Sponges are members of a group of animals that lack true tissues and organs

3. How Many Different Kinds of Sponges are There? There are over 9,000 known species of sponges There is a great diversity of them They come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors Some can be rather large, while others can be only a few centimeters big Scypha, a small marine sponge, measuring only a few centimeters, resembles a small tube with an opening at one end

4. Sponges Body Info They have no organ systems and are characterized by numerous canals and chambers that open to the outside by way of pores which giving this phylum its name. They are almost plant-like in their simplicity and are often confused as being plants. The interior is lined with flagellated cells called choanocytes (or collar cells)

5. Sponge’s Support Amoebocytes produce a protein called spongin, or mineral-based, needle-like structures for support. Amoebocytes are a cells that carry the food to other cells that require nutrition and thus partly compensate for the sponge's lack of a circulatory system

6. Sponges are asexual and use budding to reproduce There are male and female structures present in the same indidviual Zygotes develop into flagellated larvae The larvae then develop into adult sponges later on Reproduction

7. Digestion Digestion, along with circulation, excretion, and gas exchange, is accomplished by muti-purpose amoebocytes. Amoebocytes ingest food particles, digest, and transport the nutrients throughout the sponge Gas exchange also occurs at the cellular level, primarily by diffusion

8. Bibliography Biology Class Text Book http://www.deepseaimages.com http://cas.bellarmine.edu/tietjen/images/sponges.htm