Visit the website WWW.UCMP.BERKELEY.EDU/PORIFERA/PORIFERA.HTML
Using the website, find the answers to the following questions.
1. What phyla do sponges belong to?
2. How old are sponges?
3. How many different groups of sponges are there? What are their names? How did
they get their names? / What do the names mean?
4. How many different living species are there?
5. How do sponges feed?
6. How many directions does water flow through a sponge?
7. Do sponges have skeletons?
8. What are spicules?
9. What type of sponge has spicules with 6 rays intersecting at right angles?
10. Which type of sponge is the earliest?
11. Which type of sponge is abundant in Antarctica?
12. What can most sponges do that Hexactinellida can’t? What can Hexactinellida do
that other sponges can’t?
13. What is the most abundant type of sponge?
14. Which type of sponge is found in warm and cold water, high-energy and calm
water, salt water and freshwater?
15. What type of skeleton does Demospongia have?
16. What type of sponge is found primarily in tropical waters?
17. Which type of sponge has spicules with 4 rays?
18. Which type of sponge has spicules with 8 rays?
19. What are sponge “skin cells” called? Where are they found?
20. What type of cells are responsible for creating the water current that moves
through sponges?
21. What is the structure of choanocytes?
22. What is mesenchyme?
23. Which type of cell is “totipotent,” ingests and digests food for the sponge,
transports nutrients, and develops gametes?
24. How is waste removed from the sponge?
25. How much water moves through a sponge in one day?
26. How much do sponges eat?
27. How does fertilization occur during sponge sexual reproduction?
28. Sponges are hermaphroditic. What does this mean? How are sponges prevented
from fertilizing their own eggs?
29. What fertilization take place?
30. What are two methods of asexual reproduction in sponges?