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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.
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). [5] They are sponges with a soft body that covers a hard, often massive skeleton made of calcium carbonate, either aragonite or calcite [citation ...
The list of sponges of South Africa is a list of species that form a part of the poriferan (Phylum Porifera) fauna of South Africa. Taxonomy follows WoRMS. The list follows the SANBI listing on iNaturalist, and does not always agree with WoRMS for distribution.
Some molecular analyses suggest the class Calcarea is not exclusively related to other sponges, and should thus be designated as a phylum. This would also render Porifera (the sponge phylum) paraphyletic. Borchiellini et al. (2001) argued that calcareans were more closely related to Eumetazoa (non-sponge animals) than to other sponges. [9]
Main cell types of Porifera [1] Choanocytes (also known as "collar cells") are cells that line the interior of asconoid , syconoid and leuconoid body types of sponges that contain a central flagellum , or cilium, surrounded by a collar of microvilli which are connected by a thin membrane.
Of this group only surviving sponges, which belong to the phylum Porifera, and Trichoplax in the phylum Placozoa. Parazoa do not show any body symmetry (they are asymmetric); all other groups of animals show some kind of symmetry. There are currently 5000 species, 150 of which are freshwater. The larvae are planktonic and the adults are sessile.
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. Some experts believe glass sponges are the longest-lived animals on earth; [2] these scientists tentatively estimate a maximum age of up to 15,000 years.
A spongivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating animals of the phylum Porifera, commonly called sea sponges, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their diet, spongivore animals like the hawksbill turtle have developed sharp, narrow bird-like beak that allows them to reach within crevices on the reef to ...