Porifera and Sponges

After watching and taking notes about Invertebrates, I have learned a lot about these abundant animals, especially about the animals in the group, Phylum Porifera. This group includes the topic of this post, sponges, and many others that are multicellular organisms with pores and channels that allow water to enter inside, and be filter by the cells inside them. Sponges are like a clumped group of cells that work together to filter the water that passes through it. They do not have organs or any systems to deal with anything else. All this organism has is a filtering system that draws unfortunate prey into them, where the cells could digest them overtime. In a video that was related to the vodcast, a scientist demostrated the function of sponges and corals by putting dye near the base, and eventually, the sponge/coral was spewing out the dye from their opening. The vodcast talked about the kingdom this group is also in, the Animalia Kingdom, and that the group was also known to be sessile metazoans, which mean they are multicelled immobile organisms. These types reside in the ocean, near the floor where they could eat the plankton that flowed into the organism with the water. Like corals, this organism have formed symbiosis relationships with other organisms in order to protect each other and survive better. Unlike corals though, they are able to adapt to certain situations, for example, there are carnivorous sponges that use thread inside them to capture prey.