The invertebrates, or invertebrates, are animals that do not contain bony structures, such as the cranium and vertebrae. The simplest of all the invertebrates are the Parazoans, which include only the phylum Porifera: the sponges.
Parazoans (“beside animals”) do not display tissue-level organization, although they do have specialized cells that perform specific functions. Sponge larvae are able to swim; however, adults are non-motile and spend their life attached to a substratum.
Since water is vital to sponges for excretion, feeding, and gas exchange, their body structure facilitates the movement of water through the sponge. Structures such as canals, chambers, and cavities enable water to move through the sponge to nearly all body cells.
2. CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Sycon
• Habitat
• Structure
- Spicules
- Canal system
• Nutrition
• Reproduction
• Conclusion
• References
• Acknowledgement Fig 01: A preserved sponge.
Phylum
Porifera:
Sycon-
Shryli
K
S
2
3. INTRODUCTION
•The name porifera means “bearing
pores”.
• Lowest multicellular animals or
metazoans without true tissues, i.e., at
“Cellular level” of body organization.
Phylum
Porifera:
Sycon-
Shryli
K
S
3
ROBERT GRANT (1793-1874)
4. Classes of phylum Porifera
Fig 02: Leucosolenia of class
Calcarea.
Fig 03: Hyalonema of class
Hexactinellida.
Fig 04: Plakina of class
Demospongiae.
Phylum
Porifera:
Sycon-
Shryli
K
S
4
5. SYCON
Sycon is a genus of calcareous sponges belonging to
the family Sycettidae. These sponges are small,
having length from 2.5 to7.5, and are flask-shaped
and often white to cream in colour.
Phylum
Porifera:
Sycon-
Shryli
K
S
5
10. SPICULES
• The meshing of many spicules serves as the
sponge’s skeleton .It provides structural support and defense
against predators.
Fig 09: Different types of spicules of Sycon.
Phylum
Porifera:
Sycon-
Shryli
K
S
10
11. CANAL SYSTEM IN SYCON
•Paragastric cavity or
gastral cavity or
spongocoel
•Incurrent Canal
•Radial canals
• Prosopyles
• Apopyle
•Excurrent Canal
Fig 10: Canal system of Sycon.
Phylum
Porifera:
Sycon-
Shryli
K
S
11
12. NUTRITION
*Nutrition is holozoic and digestion is
intracellular.
*The sponges feed on micro-organisms which
enter into the body along with the water
current.
Fig 11: Food being engulfed by Sycon.
Phylum
Porifera:
Sycon-
Shryli
K
S
12
13. REPRODUCTION
• Reproduction is both asexual and sexual
• Asexual- Budding, fragmentation and gemmules.
Most sponges are monoecious. Meaning a
single sponge can have both male and female
sex cells.
Sperm cells develop from choanocytes. Egg
cells can develop from choanocytes in some
species and from archaeocytes in others. After
fertilisation an amphiblastula is formed which is
a larvea with flagella.
Phylum
Porifera:
Sycon-
Shryli
K
S
13
16. REFERENCES
• Sponges (Porifera), Volume 37, Werner E. G. Müller, 2003,
258 pg.
• Gray’s Anatomy, Peter Gray, general Zoology, Oxford and IHB
Publishing Co. Newdelhi, 1970, 564pg.
• https://www.thoughtco.com/sponges-profile-2291833
• http://www.biozoomer.com/2014/04/sycon-sponge-
spicules.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sycon
• http://www.biologydiscussion.com/invertebrate-
zoology/phylum-porifera/an-example-of-phylum-porifera-
sycon/32600
• http://species-
identification.org/species.php?species_group=sponges&id=43
5
Phylum
Porifera:
Sycon-
Shryli
K
S
16
17. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank the Department of
Molecular Biology, for providing me this
opportunity to present my seminar, I would
also like to thank my guide Chethana Ma’am,
for her valuable guidance and support through
out the preparation of my seminar. Thank you
all.
Phylum
Porifera:
Sycon-
Shryli
K
S
17