Noah Golestani, Alec Wilson, Nikolai Bottitta, Prakhar Pandey, Thejas Kadur
Porifera
Most organisms from the Porifera phylum do not have a respiratory system and thus do not contain any specialized organs. Porifera for this reason are considered to be the least evolved organism in terms of respiration for all of the phyla that we have covered on this website. They solely breathe through oxygen diffusion which allows oxygen to pass from the water into the body of the porifera.
Porifera are divided into three classes: Calcarea, Glass Sponges, and Demosponges. Calcarea are typically represented by all three body types (picture on the right). Glass Sponges and Demosponges can only be leuconoids. Instead, the system works in a way in which water comes in through pores on the side, and water goes up as it runs out of nutrients to gather. The sponge then proceeds to tighten by pushing the water out of its system, which makes room for new water and thus more nutrients (Porifera).
A community of magnificent sponges serenely sitting in the ocean.
The diagram on the left is the asconoid body type. The center diagram is the syconoid body type. The diagram on the right is a leuconoid body type.
The most famous sponge in the world!
Maintains the structure of the sponge to facilitate their form of respiration
The most famous sponge in the world!