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Sponges constitute the phylum Porifera, and have been defined as sessile metazoans (multicelled immobile animals) that have water intake and outlet openings connected by chambers lined with choanocytes, cells with whip-like flagella. [13]: 29 However, a few carnivorous sponges have lost these water flow systems and the choanocytes.
Flow tank experiments suggest that archaeocyathan morphology allowed them to exploit flow gradients, either by passively pumping water through the skeleton, or, as in present-day, extant sponges, by drawing water through the pores, removing nutrients, and expelling spent water and wastes through the pores into the central space.
About 311 million years ago, in the Late Carboniferous, the order Spongillida split from the marine sponges, and is the only sponges to live in freshwater environments. [8] Some species are brightly colored, with great variety in body shape; the largest species are over 1 m (3.3 ft) across. [ 6 ]
All sponges in this class are strictly marine, and, while they are distributed worldwide, most are found in shallow tropical waters. Like nearly all other sponges, they are sedentary filter feeders. All three sponge body plans (asconoid, syconoid, and leuconoid) can be found within the class Calcarea. Typically, calcareous sponges are small ...
Using their ostia and osculum these sponges filter the water for various small aquatic organisms such as protozoans, bacteria, and other free-floating pond life. [4] Sponges of the genus Spongilla partake in symbiotic relationships with green algae, zoochlorellae. The symbiotic zoochlorellae give the sponges a green appearance and without them ...
The algae help facilitate oxygen and food uptake for the sponge, while the sponge provides the algae a surface to live on. The gemmules of Spongilla lacustris inside the original parent sponge. The texture of the sponge itself is soft. The ostia (dermal pores) let water into the sponge to be filtered. The oscula is the hole from which water exits.
By cooperatively moving their flagella, choanocytes filter particles out of the water and into the spongocoel, and out through the osculum.This improves both respiratory and digestive functions for the sponge, pulling in oxygen and nutrients and allowing a rapid expulsion of carbon dioxide and other waste products.
The sponges are inserted into the vagina in much the same way a tampon is, but when full are removed, cleaned, and reused, rather than discarded. The advantages of a reusable tampon alternative include cost-effectiveness and waste reduction. (Since sponges are biodegradable, even when a menstrual sponge's absorbent life is over it can be ...