Preserved Invertebrates >> Sponges

The sponges or poriferans (from the Greek poros "pore" and ferro "to bear") are animals of the phylum Porifera. They are primitive, sessile, mostly marine, water dwelling filter feeders that pump water through their bodies to filter out particles of food matter. Sponges are among 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.

This sponge demonstrates the sycon body plan in which the wall of the body has been folded into a series of internal and external canals.  Water enters the sponge through a series of incurrent canals and passes through internal pores called prosopyles into the radial canals, which are lined with flagellated collar cells known as choanocytes.  It is the action of these choanocytes that keeps water moving through the sponge.  From the radial canals, water then enters the central spongocoel through pores called apopyles to exit through a single opening called an osculum.