Can anyone tell the some major facts on sea sponges, or show a website that tells alot about sponges? Please give a site that's a study site without the ability for anyone to edit it (no wikipedia)
2007-02-21 12:25:21 · 2 answers · asked by Lt. V 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
The sponges or poriferans (from Latin porus "pore" and ferre "to bear") are animals of the phylum Porifera. They are primitive, sessile, mostly marine, water dwelling, and filter feeders that pump water through their bodies to filter out particles of food matter. Sponges represent the simplest of animals. With no true tissues (parazoa), they lack muscles, nerves, and internal organs. Their similarity to colonial choanoflagellates shows the probable evolutionary jump from unicellular to multicellular organisms. There are over 5,000 modern species of sponges known, and they can be found attached to surfaces anywhere from the intertidal zone to as deep as 8,500 m (29,000 feet) or further. Though the fossil record of sponges dates back to the Neoproterozoic Era, new species are still commonly discovered.
2007-02-21 13:30:45 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sponges, while they may look like plants, are a simple multi-cellular animal. Members of the phylum Porifera, which means “pore-bearing,” a sponge is covered with a multitude of small pores.
Check out the references for more.
2007-02-21 22:00:30 · answer #2 · answered by ♥ lani s 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋