Simple aquatic animals lacking true tissues that filter feed through pores.
Phylum Porifera. Choanocytes (collar cells) beat flagella to draw water through pores (ostia) and out of the osculum, trapping food. Amoebocytes distribute nutrients and make spicules. They can regenerate and reaggregate from dissociated cells.
Sponges lack organs and nerves. Cells are totipotent. Reproduce sexually and asexually.
Example: sponges are important in reef nutrient cycles.
Simple aquatic animals lacking true tissues that filter feed through pores.
Sponges is one of the 53 topics in Zoology & Animal Diversity. It is rated Beginner, so it suits learners who are starting out in biology. Related topics in this area include Animal Kingdom, Flatworms, Echinoderms.
Bath sponges have flexible spongin fibres.
Sponges is a Beginner topic, so no earlier topic is required. Other Beginner topics in Zoology & Animal Diversity that pair well with it include Animal Kingdom, Vertebrates and Invertebrates, Cnidarians.
The closest topics to Sponges are Animal Kingdom, Flatworms, Echinoderms, Germ Layers. Comparing them side by side is a good way to see how the ideas connect.
Read the summary and the in-depth section, then use the quick check on the interactive lesson for Sponges. To practise the whole of Zoology & Animal Diversity, use the Zoology & Animal Diversity quiz.
Sponges: Simple aquatic animals lacking true tissues that filter feed through pores. Animal Kingdom: Multicellular heterotrophic eukaryotes without cell walls that typically move and ingest food. Read both side by side and note what each one explains.
First, read the summary and write the definition in your own words. Second, read the in-depth section and note any example. Third, compare it with Animal Kingdom and explain the difference aloud. Finally, take the Zoology & Animal Diversity quiz and come back to this page for any question you miss.
Multicellular heterotrophic eukaryotes without cell walls that typically move and ingest food.
🦁 Zoology & Animal DiversitySoft-bodied, bilaterally symmetric worms with no body cavity, including tapeworms and flukes.
🦁 Zoology & Animal DiversityMarine animals with radial symmetry as adults and a water vascular system, like starfish.
🦁 Zoology & Animal DiversityEctoderm, mesoderm and endoderm give rise to all animal tissues; simple animals have only two.
🦁 Zoology & Animal Diversity