Sponges - Porifera

Azure Vase Sponge - Callyspongia Plicifera

The Azure Vase sponge, is a species of sea sponge belonging to the Demospongiae class, family Callyspogiidae.  sponge of carribean sea ...

Bath Sponge - Spongia officinalis

Spongia officinalis (Linnaeus, 1759) is a sponge Spongiidae family. It is the species from which were obtained the bath sponges. It is a protected species, it fishing is prohibited. ...

Blue Sponge - Phorbas tenacior

Phorbas tenacior (Topsent, 1925) is a sponge of the family Hymedesmiidae (Demospongiae), widespread in the Mediterranean sea. Phorbas tenacior Spugna Blu Blue Sponge intotheblue.it ...

Callyspongia - Callyspongiidae

Callyspongia is a genus of demosponges in the family Callyspongiidae. Callyspongia spugne poriferi Callyspongiidae intotheblue.it ...

Callyspongia ramosa sponge

The sponge Callyspongia ramosa belongs  to the Porifera phylum, Demospongiae class, Haplosclerida order, Callyspongiidae family. Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera are a basal Metazoa ...

Demosponge - Demospongiae

Demosponges are the most diverse class in the phylum Porifera. They include 76.2% of all species of sponges with nearly 8,800 species worldwide (World Porifera Database). Sponges, contrary to what one might think at first sight, are very simple multicellular...

Giant Barrel sponge - Xestospongia muta

Giant Barrel sponge (Xestospongia muta) is the largest species of sponge found growing on Carribean coral reefs. It is common at depths greater than 10 metres down to 120 metres and can reach a diameter of 1.8 metres. It is typically brownish-red to ...

Goblet Sponge - Calyx nicaeensis

Goblet Sponge, Calyx nicaeensis, takes its name to its characteristic goblet shape. According to some experts, this sponge has become extremely rare in the Mediterranean sea because it requires very stable water temperature and biological conditions:...

Red sponge - Spirastrella cunctatrix

Red sponge or spirastrella (Spirastrella cunctatrix) is a sponge of the Spirastrellidae family belonging to the demospongiae class. It is an encrusting red-orange sponge (which can sometimes turn green, blue and grey), characterized by very evident channels...

Spugna Orecchio di Elefante - Spongia agaricina

La spugna Orecchia d'Elefante, (Spongia agaricina, Spongia lamella), ricorda una ciotola relativamente piatta. Nella parte inferiore si restringe, per formare il...

Spugna Ramificata - Axinella polypoides

Common Antlers Sponge, Axinella polypoides, is a species of sea sponge belonging to the Demospongiae class, family Axinellidae and at phylum Porifera. it's present throughout the Mediterranean Sea. It comes in the form of a sapling and lives at a depth ...

Tedania sponge - Tedania anhelans

Tedania anhelans is a sea sponge that has an arborescent shape with colors that vary from transparent to light gray or dark gray depending on the conditions and depths of the environment in which it lives and personally ...

Verongia - Aplysina aerophoba

Aplysina (Aplysina aerophoba Nardo, 1843) is a family of sponge Aplysinidae. Verongia Aplysina aerophoba spugna Aplysinidae intotheblue.it ...

Spugna Porifera organismi pluricellulari Sponges multicellular organisms

Sponges (Porifera Grant, 1836, from the Latin bearers of pores) or sponges are an animal phylum. It is multi-cellular organisms, having pores rich bodies and channels that allow water to flow through them; They are basically made up of a lot, or spongocele, structured as a compound or gelatinous mesoglea placed between two thin layers of cells, the coanoderma, pinacoderma interior and the exterior.

The non-differentiated cells in the mesoglia, or archeoblasti, able to transform to take on specialized functions, can migrate between the layers of main cells and the mesoglia. They possess a skeletal structure, the endoskeleton, formed by calcareous or siliceous spicules, or consist of protein fibers spongin, produced by specialized cells. Sponges do not have equipment or different organs; most of the functions are based on maintaining a constant flow of water through their bodies to obtain food and oxygen and remove catabolic products.

Generality Sponges are, like the other metazoan, multicellular, heterotrophic, they do not have cell walls and produce sperm and ovules. Unlike other animals, they do not have real tissues and organs, and, generally, do not have somatic symmetry. The shapes of their bodies are adapted for maximum efficiency of the flow of water through the central cavity, where it deposits nutrients, and exits through a hole called osculum. The interior of skeletons are spongine and / or formed by spicules of calcium carbonate or silica. All Sponges are aquatic animals, mostly marine and sessile; There are also freshwater species, and colonize environments ranging from tidal zones at depths exceeding 8000 m.

Evolution The taxonomists place the sponges in one of four sottoregni animals, that of Parazoi. Molecular analysis since 2001 have concluded that some groups of sponges are more closely related to the eumetazoi (the vast majority of animal organisms) than the rest of sponges. These findings imply that sponges are not a monophyletic group since the last common ancestor of all the sponges would also be a direct ancestor of eumetazoi, which are not sponges. A study conducted on the basis of comparisons of ribosomal DNA has concluded that the most important division within the phylum is among glassy or Hexactinellid sponges and the rest of the group, and that eumetazoi are more closely related to calcareous sponges, the ones with spicules calcium carbonate, compared to other types of sponge. In 2007, an analysis based on the comparison of RNA and another based primarily on comparison of spicules concluded that demosponge and glass sponges are more closely related to each other than other classes, like the calcareous sponges, which in turn are more closely linked to eumetazoi.

These and other analyzes have established that the sponges are the closest relatives of the common ancestors to all metazoans, that all multicellular animals. Another comparison in 2008 of 150 genes in each of 21 species ranging from fungi to humans, but including only two species of sponge, suggested that Ctenophora are the most basal lineage of metazoans sampled. If this is correct, modern Ctenophora have developed their complex structures independently of other metazoans, or the ancestors of sponges “were more complex” and all known sponges have been drastically simplified in the forms.

The study recommends further analysis using a wider range of sponges and other simple metazoan as placozoi. The results of this analysis, published in 2009, suggest that the return to the previous view, with the sponges to the evolutionary tree based, can be justified. a dendrogram constructed using a combination of all available data, morphological, developmental and molecular concluded that the sponges are actually a monophyletic group, with the twin group cnidarians formats to bilateria.

The first evidence of the existence of fossil Porifera date back about 570 million years ago (late Precambrian): the finds of that period, the so-called small shelly fauna (from English small shelly fauna), are composed largely of clusters spicules of sponges, together with fragments or disarticulated remains of other organisms such as mollusks, brachiopods, echinoderms.

(Wikipedia)

Gallery

This slideshow requires JavaScript.