Sponges are classified as Porifera and vary greatly in size, shape, and color with over 10,000 species. They are sessile and attach to surfaces. Sponges have pores and channels that allow water to flow through, bringing nutrients and oxygen while removing waste. Their skeletons are made of either spongin fibers or spicules. Most sponges filter feed by trapping food from the water flow. They can reproduce through regeneration of fragments or sexually through sperm and egg. Cnidarians like hydra, jellyfish, and coral make up the Phylum Cnidaria and have tentacles, a gastrovascular cavity, and stinging cnidocytes cells. They can exist as polyps or med

1. Porifera & Cnidaria Chapter 35 KianatZamir, Molly Bicksler & Rebecca Krick

2. Songes- Porifera Sponges are classified into the animal phylum Porifera, meaning, “pore bearer.”

3. Sponges- Sessiles A sponge is a sessile because “sessile” attach themselves to a surface and stay stuck. This is the type of behavior a sponge practices in it’s environment.

4. Sponges- Variations Sponges vary in almost every way: Size & shape- 1cm to 2 meters Color Cactus & moss like Blob or fungus like Over 10,000 species

5. Sponges- Collar Cells & Osculum Sponges have 2 cylinders lined with collar cells that have flagella to help penetrate the sponge with water. This water eaves through the osculum, the opening at the top of the sponge.

6. Sponges- Collar Cells & Osculum

7. Sponges: Spongin vs. Spicules Spongin: fibers that give the sponge it’s shape & keep it from collapsing Spicules: Skeleton made of tiny calcium carbonate or little spikes of silicon dioxide

8. Sponges – FilterFeeding Most sponges feed by screening food out of the water that the collar cells pump through their body since they cannot pursue their food. Nutrients pass from the collar cells to other cells that crawl about within the body wall, bringing nutrients to the rest of the body. This niche is important in nature because carbon dioxide and other wastes produced by the sponge’s cells diffuse into the water passing through the sponge. Which helps to clean out the water of bacteria and other diseases.

9. Sponge Reproduction Regeneration : is the ability to regrow missing parts; its important in sponge reproduction because even a small piece of sponge can regenerate into a complete new sponge. Mobile Larva: sperm is released into the water from one sponge and enters the pores of another sponge. Collar cells in the second sponge engulf the sperm and transfer them to amebocytes which carry the sperm to an egg. After the egg is fertilized it develops into larva.

11. Jellyfish

13. Cnidaria Characteristics Gastrovascular Cavity – a hollow in the center of the body which has a single opening, or mouth. Tentacles –flexible extensions which surround the mouth. Cnidocytes – specialized cells used for defense and capturing prey. In some cnidarians, the cnidocytes are concentrated in the epidermis, especially on the tentacles.

14. Cnidaria Characteristics