Porifera

What are porifera?

Porifera literally means "pore-bearing".

Sponges make up all the organisms in the phylum Porifera.

    Sponges:

  • are sessile filter feeders
  • are multicellular
  • have no nervous system
  • have no organs or tissues
  • can reproduce sexually or asexually
  • mostly marine; all aquatic
  • are not symmetrical
  • are believed to be the first multi-cellular organisms

Here is an fine example of porifera

Sponges are the simplest multicellular animals. A sponge resembles a colony where single celled organisms work together for mutual benefit. Individual sponge cells can function independantly. This was proven by William H V Wilson in 1907, when he forced a sponge through a piece of silk. This caused the sponge to dissasociate into single cells. He then placed the cells in sea water for three weeks, by which time they had reagragated into a functional sponge.

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