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The term sponge derives from the Ancient Greek word σπόγγος spóngos. [8] The scientific name Porifera is a neuter plural of the Modern Latin term porifer, which comes from the roots porus meaning "pore, opening", and -fer meaning "bearing or carrying".
The calcareous sponges[2][3] (class Calcarea) are members of the animal phylum Porifera, the cellular sponges. They are characterized by spicules made of calcium carbonate, in the form of high- magnesium calcite or aragonite. While the spicules in most species are triradiate (with three points in a single plane), some species may possess two ...
Sponge spicules are made of calcium carbonate or silica. Large spicules visible to the naked eye are referred to as megascleres or macroscleres, while smaller, microscopic ones are termed microscleres. The composition, size, and shape of spicules are major characters in sponge systematics and taxonomy.
Spongilla lacustris (Spongillida) Demosponges (Demospongiae) are the most diverse class in the phylum Porifera. They include greater than 90% of all species of sponges with nearly 8,800 species worldwide (World Porifera Database). [4] They are sponges with a soft body that covers a hard, often massive skeleton made of calcium carbonate, either ...
Venus' flower basket. The Venus' flower basket (Euplectella aspergillum) is a glass sponge in the phylum Porifera. It is a marine sponge found in the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean, usually at depths below 500 m (1,600 ft). Like other sponges, they feed by filtering sea water to capture plankton and marine snow. [1]
Bolosoma stalked glass sponge. Hexactinellid sponges are sponges with a skeleton made of four- and/or six-pointed siliceous spicules, often referred to as glass sponges.They are usually classified along with other sponges in the phylum Porifera, but some researchers consider them sufficiently distinct to deserve their own phylum, Symplasma.
Spongilla lacustris is part of the class demosponges of the phylum Porifera. The Porifera phylum contains all sponges which are characterized by the small pores on the outer layer, which take in water. The cells in the sponge walls filter food from the water. Whatever is not uptaken by the sponge is pumped through the body out of a large opening.
Spongocoel. A spongocoel (/ ˈspɒŋɡoʊˌsiːl / [1]), also called paragaster (or paragastric cavity), is the large, central cavity of sponges. Water enters the spongocoel through hundreds of tiny pores (ostia) and exits through the larger opening (osculum). Depending on the body plan of the sponge (which can be asconoid, syconoid, or ...