any of the primitive multicellular aquatic animals that constitute the phylum Porifera. They number approximately 5,000 described species and inhabit all seas, where they occur attached to surfaces from the intertidal zone to depths of 8,500 metres (29,000 feet) or more. The members of one family, the Spongillidae, are found in fresh water; however, 98 percent of all sponge species are marine. Adult sponges lack a definite nervous system and musculature and do not show conspicuous movements of body parts.

Early naturalists regarded the sponges as plants because of their frequent branching form and their lack of obvious movement. The animal nature of sponges, first described in 1755, was confirmed in 1765 after observations of their water currents and the changes in diameter of the openings into their central cavity. In structure, function, and development, sponges are distinct from other animals; one of their most noticeable features is that they lack organs. Many zoologists have regarded sponges as occupying an isolated position in the animal kingdom and classify them in the subkingdom Parazoa; however, molecular data suggest that both sponges and more-complex animals evolved from a common ancestor. Probably they are bona fide animals that gave rise to no further evolutionary lines.

The phylum Porifera may be divided into three classes on the basis of the composition of the skeletal elements. Together, the classes Calcarea (calcareous sponge) and Hexactinellida (glass sponge) make up about 10 to 20 percent of the known species of sponges; the remaining 80 to 90 percent are placed in the class Demospongiae (siliceous sponge).

The soft elastic skeletal frameworks of certain species of the class Demospongiae—e.g., Spongia officinalis, Hippospongia communis, S. zimocca, S. graminea—have been familiar household items since ancient times. In ancient Greece and Rome, sponges were used to apply paint, as mops, and by soldiers as substitutes for drinking vessels. During the Middle Ages, burned sponge was reputed to have therapeutic value in the treatment of various diseases. Natural sponges now are used mostly in arts and crafts such as pottery and jewelry making, painting and decorating, and in surgical medicine. Synthetic sponges have largely replaced natural ones for household use.

The living sponge is a mass of cells and fibres, its interior permeated by an intricate system of canals that open as holes of various sizes through the tough dark brown or black skin, which may be hairy from fibre ends that pierce it. Only after it has been completely cleaned of its millions of living cells does a sponge resemble the sponge of commerce; i.e., a soft and elastic spongin skeletal framework. Commercially valuable sponges, which may be found from tidal level to a depth of about 200 feet, usually are harvested by hooking or harpooning in shallow waters, by skin diving or by deepwater fishing. Although the most valuable sponges are found in the eastern Mediterranean area, they also are harvested off the west coast of Florida and the Florida Keys, in the West Indies, off Mexico and Belize, and, to a limited extent, off the Philippines. Because they have the ability to regenerate lost parts, sponges can be cultivated from small fragments.

Sponges are valuable from a scientific point of view because of their unusual cellular organization (the cells do not form tissues or organs such as those found in other animals), their ability to regenerate lost parts, and their biochemical features (they have many compounds not known in other animals). Sponges comprise an important part of the life found in the depths of the sea (benthos) and may be associated with other organisms; e.g., many types of animals live in sponges.

Most sponges are only a few centimetres in size, but some urn-shaped or shapeless ones are less than a centimetre (0.4 inch); others, shaped like vases, tubes, or branches, may be one to two metres (3.3–6.6 feet) tall, and broad rounded masses may be one to two metres in diameter. Size within a species may vary with age, environmental conditions, and food supply.

Sponges vary greatly in external appearance. Some are bushy or treelike and have fingerlike projections. Others, particularly in the class Demospongiae, are shapeless, or amorphous, masses that form thin encrustations on objects or are cushion shaped. A few species in the Demospongiae have well-defined spherical shapes as in Tethya aurantium, the sea orange; others may be cup- or fan-shaped. Calcareous sponges of the genus Scypha are shaped like tubular sacs, with an opening (osculum) at the tip. Members of the Hexactinellida are erect or cylindrical, with a stalklike base.

Colour among sponges is variable. Deep-water sponges usually show a neutral colour, drab or brownish; shallow-water sponges, frequently brightly coloured, range from red, yellow, and orange to violet and occasionally black. Most calcareous sponges are white. Some sponges (e.g., the Spongillidae) are often greenish because green algae live in a symbiotic relationship within them; others are violet or pinkish, because they harbour symbiotic blue-green algae. These symbionts endow the sponges with colour as long as light is available; the sponges become white in the dark when no photosynthesis occurs and the algal pigments utilized in photosynthesis are no longer produced. Another variable character in sponges is consistency, which may range from the soft and viscous state of some encrusting species to the hard stonelike quality of the genus Petrosia. In addition, the surface of a sponge may be smooth, velvety, rough with protruding skeletal elements called spicules, or conulose (i.e., provided with conical protrusions called conuli).

Sponges are present at all water depths, from the tidal zone to the deepest regions (abyss). They occur at all latitudes and are particularly abundant in Antarctic waters. Members of the Calcarea and Demospongiae are found mainly on the rocky bottoms of the continental shelf, and members of the Hexactinellida are characteristic of the deepest muddy bottoms of oceans and seas. In some environments, sponges are the dominating organisms; sometimes they cover wide areas, especially on rocky overhangs and in the caves of the littoral, or shore, zone. A restricted number of species are adapted to brackish waters; and members of the family Spongillidae (class Demospongiae) populate the fresh waters of rivers and lakes.

Most sponges reproduce sexually, although asexual reproduction may also occur. Sponges are generally hermaphroditic (that is, having male and female germ cells in one animal); however, some sponge species are sequential hermaphrodites (that is, having male and female germ cells that develop at different times in the same animal).

The fertilization of an egg by a spermatozoan is peculiar in sponges in that a spermatozoan, after its release from a sponge, is carried by the water current until it is captured by a specialized flagellated cell called a choanocyte, or collar cell, in another sponge. The choanocyte then transforms into an amoeba-shaped cell called a carrier cell, which gives up the spermatozoan to an egg, lying near a chamber formed by choanocytes and containing long lashlike appendages called flagella.

Development of the embryo may occur in one of several ways characteristic of the different groups; as a result, more than one type of larva is found. The characteristic larva of the Calcarea and of some members of the Demospongiae (e.g., Oscarella), called an amphiblastula, is oval in shape and has a cavity in the middle; the front half of the larva consists of cylindrical, flagellated cells, the other half of round cells without flagella. The larva swims with the flagellated portion forward. The amphiblastula is preceded by a stage (stomoblastula) in which the central cavity of a hollow mass of cells (blastula) opens outward and is surrounded by round granular cells (macromere), which are distinguished from other cells with flagella (micromere). The most common larval form among the Demospongiae is called a parenchymella; it is solid and compact, with an outer layer of flagellated cells and an inner mass of nonflagellated cells.

A larva swims for a period of time that may vary from a few hours to a few days before it descends to find a surface suitable for attachment. After attachment, the larva metamorphoses into a young sponge. The metamorphosis following larval attachment involves changes in the relative positions and functions of larval cells. In one larval type (parenchymella), the flagellated outer cells become the collar cells (choanocytes) of the interior of the adult sponge; the interior cells of the larva give rise, in the adult, to the cell layer (pinacoderm) and the different cells (e.g., archaeocytes, collencytes) found in the amorphous substance (mesohyl) that fills the sponge. In the amphiblastula, the choanocytes are derived from the forward flagellated region; the other cells and the mesohyl are derived from the posterior half. Choanocytes create the water currents through sponges and capture food particles.

The sexual maturation of sponges is connected with the temperature of the water in which they live. In the temperate regions, maturation occurs mainly from spring to autumn; sometimes two distinct periods of reproduction occur, one in spring, the other in autumn. Some sponges mature at any time of the year; e.g., Scypha, formerly called Sycon. Tropical sponges also apparently mature any time throughout the year. Sponges for the most part bear living young (i.e., are viviparous); the larvae are released through the canals of the excurrent (outgoing) water system and an opening (osculum) also involved in that system. A few sponges (e.g., Cliona and Tethya) lay eggs (i.e., are oviparous).

The life-span of sponges is not well known; the small encrusting forms probably live about a year, disappearing during a season unfavourable to their survival; small fragments of an individual, however, may persist and reproduce new individuals in the next season. The large species have a much longer life-span; bath sponges (Spongia, Hippospongia), for example, attain a commercially desirable size after seven years and may live as long as 20 years.

Asexual reproduction also occurs in sponges in various ways; the best known method is called gemmulation. Gemmulation begins when aggregates of cells, mostly archaeocytes, which, when they become laden with reserve food granules become isolated at the surface of a sponge and surrounded by a protective covering. These so-called “gemmules” are expelled from the adult sponge and, in some marine species, serve as a normal reproductive process or, sometimes, as a means to carry the sponges over periods of unfavourable conditions when the adults degenerate; e.g., drought, temperature extremes.

Members of the freshwater (freshwater sponge) Spongillidae undergo a slightly different form of gemmulation. Gemmules consist of aggregates of archaeocytes laden with reserve granules; in addition, however, they are surrounded by protective membranes formed by the archaeocytes. The protective covering is generally reinforced by spicules, which vary in shape according to the species and are useful in classification. Freshwater sponge gemmules allow a species to survive unfavourable conditions in a state in which vital activities are almost completely suspended. In cold regions, gemmulation occurs in winter, and the inactive gemmules are said to hibernate; in warm regions, gemmulation occurs in summer, and the gemmules are said to estivate. In spring or autumn when favourable conditions return, the gemmules germinate, their archaeocytes emerge through an opening (micropyle), the various cellular types differentiate, and a new sponge grows. Other methods of asexual reproduction include formation of stolons (rootlike extensions) and fragmentation of individuals.

The extraordinary capacity of sponges to regenerate is manifested not only by restoration of damaged or lost parts but also by complete regeneration of an adult from fragments or even single cells. Sponge cells may be separated by mechanical methods (e.g., squeezing a piece of sponge through fine silk cloth) or by chemical methods (e.g., elimination of calcium and magnesium from seawater). The dissociated cells then settle, migrate, and form active aggregates in which the archaeocytes play an important role. In order for small aggregates of cells to form larger aggregates, the cells must generally become attached to a surface, where they flatten and develop an envelope of special cells (pinacocytes); this is called the diamorph stage. Reconstitution of the choanocyte chambers and of the canal system follow soon afterward, resulting in a young sponge that is functional and able to grow. It is generally believed that the reconstitution process, even if it involves cell division, is not comparable with embryonic development, because the various types of dissociated cells participate in the formation of the new sponge by sorting and rearranging themselves, rather than by differentiating from primitive cell types. Regeneration in sponges is of theoretical interest in connection with cell-to-cell recognition, adhesion, sorting out, movement, and cell properties.

During unfavourable conditions, sponges are reduced to small fragments that may consist only of masses of archaeocytes covered by layers of pinacocytes. A complete sponge forms from these fragments when favourable conditions return.

The regenerative abilities of sponges, their lack of a central coordinating organ (brain), and the peculiar migratory ability of cells within the organisms combine to make it somewhat difficult to define sponge individuality. Zoologists involved in the study of sponges empirically define a sponge individual as a mass that is enveloped by a common ectoderm, i.e., by a common cellular layer.

Most Porifera, very sensitive to a wide range of ecological factors, are difficult to raise in the laboratory. Few species (e.g., Hymeniacidon sanguinea) can tolerate long periods of emersion and variations in such physical factors as light, temperature, and salinity.

Light can limit sponge survival in a given habitat. Littoral-dwelling sponges generally develop in caves, on shadowed walls, or under small shelters such as those provided by crevices. Some species, mainly in the tropics, however, are covered by a metre or less of water and thus are exposed to considerable irradiation from the sun. Symbiotic relationships between algae and sponges usually occur in strongly illuminated zones; the algae may act as a protective device because they deposit pigments in the superficial cell layers of the sponge. In some sponges (e.g., Petrosia ficiformis), colour is related to the number of symbionts; in a cave, for example, sponges gradually change from intensely coloured specimens to light-coloured, sometimes white, ones in the depth of the cave where the number of algae decreases.

Porifera of the family Clionidae (clionid) (class Demospongiae) live in galleries they excavate in shells of mollusks, in corals, in limestone, and in other calcareous materials. The boring activities of clionids are accomplished by the excavation, possibly involving both chemical and mechanical action, of numerous, small chips of calcium carbonate. Cytoplasmic projections and films put out by sponge cells in contact with a calcareous surface apparently come into intimate contact with the calcium carbonate, resulting in the removal of particles of relatively uniform size. Clionid sponges weaken limestone breakwaters and coral reefs, making them more easily subject to further abrasion by waves. In addition, they weaken oystershells.

Although most sponges settle and grow on hard or rocky surfaces, some anchor to a firm object on soft bottoms, on sand, on mud, or on debris. Unattached sponges are rare. Different species may compete for a surface, and superposition of one species on another sometimes occurs; the presence of a rich population of different species on the same surface may help them to survive by the modifications each contributes to the environmental microclimate surrounding them, thereby providing protection against extreme fluctuations of physical factors such as temperature and light.

The Porifera often grow on or near other organisms, sometimes killing those they cover; the sessile (attached) barnacle Balanus balanoides, for example, may be killed in this way. In other cases, associations may provide advantages to both organisms, particularly those between sponges and crustaceans. Some crustaceans, mainly crabs (crab), use sponges for camouflage by removing a piece of a living sponge and holding it against their carapace (shell); the best known example of this type of mutualistic association is that of the sponge Suberites domuncula and hermit crabs (hermit crab), which live in the shells of gastropod mollusks. The advantage to the sponge is that it is carried by the mollusk; the hermit crab gains protection not only by living in the shell of the mollusk but also through the disagreeable smell and taste of the sponge, which discourages attack by fishes and other enemies.

Various plants and animals may live on the surface of the sponge or inside its canals and cavities. In some cases the associations are specific; e.g., the coral Parazoanthus axinellae grows on the sponge Axinella. The organisms that live in the cavities of sponges include crustaceans, nematode and polychaete worms, ophiuroid echinoderms (brittle stars), and bivalve mollusks; some inhabit a sponge for occasional shelter or nourishment, others establish more intimate associations as parasites or predators. Young shrimps (shrimp) of the genus Spongicola penetrate certain sponges of the class Calcarea, live in them in pairs, and presumably are trapped for life in the rigid skeleton of the sponge; the Japanese consider these shrimps a symbol of matrimonial faithfulness. The number of organisms that live within a single sponge may be very high; thousands of organisms of various species, for example, may be found in Spheciospongia vesparia, a Caribbean sponge.

Some organisms that live on (called epibionts) and in (called endobionts) sponges act as parasites. Cyclopoid copepods are the most important parasites of marine sponges; in fact, some genera of these crustaceans have become modified as a consequence of their parasitic existence. Freshwater sponges also are attacked by parasites such as rotifers and mites, which lay eggs in them; larvae of the neuropteran insect family Sisyridae (spongillaflies) live in, and feed upon, freshwater sponges. In general, sponges are protected from predators by their disagreeable taste and smell and by their hard skeletal elements (spicules). In some cases, however, sponges are eaten by other organisms; e.g., mollusks—gastropods such as snails and nudibranch slugs, prosobranchs such as Patella and Littorina, and chitons—some crustaceans, and some fishes (especially on coral reefs).

The most important symbiotic associations of sponges occur with single-celled and multicellular algae. The algae may live in the surface layers of the sponge, inside the cells, or among them. The sponge protects the algae from enemies, from unfavourable environmental conditions, and from their own metabolic waste products; the sponge uses the algae as a source of oxygen, as a mechanism for eliminating its products of metabolism, as a screen against sunlight, and as a food source (consuming both algal waste products and dying algae). Sponges of the freshwater Spongillidae and various species of marine littoral sponges consume dying green and blue-green algae respectively. The algae, which provide the Spongillidae with their characteristic green colour, may be transmitted through the gemmules. In some boring clionid sponges (Cliona viridis) of the class Demospongiae, some single-celled brown algae are constantly present. The marine sponges may also harbour multicellular blue-green algae (e.g., Oscillatoria), red (red algae) (Rhodophyceae) and green (green algae) (Chlorphyceae) algae. Red and green algae sometimes provide skeletal support for certain sponges.

Sponges may be attacked by diseases of epidemic character, the agents of which are not well known. The commercial sponges of the West Indies once were nearly completely destroyed by a fungus-like microorganism; other sponges were not damaged.

Sponges are unusual animals in that they lack definite organs to carry out their various functions. The most important structure is the system of canals and chambers, called a water-current system, through which water circulates to bring food and oxygen to the sponge. The water-current system also helps disperse gametes and larvae and remove wastes.

The essential elements of the water-current system include the pores, or ostia, through which water enters the sponge (incurrent system); the choanocytes, or collar cells, which are flagellated cells that generate water currents and capture food; and the oscula, openings through which water is expelled (excurrent system). Three types of water-current systems of increasingly complex structure may be distinguished by the arrangement of choanocytes and the development of canals—ascon, sycon, and leucon. The simplest, or ascon, type, found only in certain primitive genera of the Calcarea (e.g., Leucosolenia), is characterized by an arrangement of choanocytes around a central cavity that directly communicates with the osculum. The walls of these sponges are thin, lack canals, and are perforated by pores, which actually are openings through cells (porocytes). The sycon type of water-current system, found also in calcareous sponges, is at first characterized by choanocytes that surround fingerlike projections of the sponge wall. Water enters the projections directly through pores, makes its way into the central cavity, or spongocoel, and leaves by way of an osculum. In most syconoid sponges (e.g., Scypha) the radial canals are bordered by incurrent canals through which passes the water entering the pores; other openings (prosopyles) allow water into the choanocytes, from which it passes directly into the internal cavity and out of it through the osculum. In the leucon type, which is found in the more advanced members of the Calcarea and in the other classes (Demospongiae and Hexactinellida), the radial canals are replaced by numerous small flagellated chambers in which the choanocytes are localized. The chambers, scattered throughout the body of the sponge, have pores through which water passes into a complex system of incurrent canals, then into a spongocoel (internal cavity) by way of excurrent canals. Water enters very small pores found among the cells (pinacocytes), which line the outer surface of the sponge. After passing through a system of incurrent canals and cavities, also lined with pinacocytes, the water reaches the flagellated chambers, enters them through openings (prosopyles), and leaves through other openings (apopyles). The water is expelled through the osculum after passing through a system of excurrent canals and cavities lined with pinacocytes. During the development of many sponges, a simpler water current system (rhagon) precedes the leucon type. The rhagon type is characterized by reduced excurrent canals and by a large central cavity. In some Demospongiae the body is organized in two parts, an external ectosome without choanocytes, and an internal choanosome with choanocytes.

The cladorhizids (family Cladorhizidae), a small group of deep-water and cave-dwelling demosponges, lack a water-current system. Instead, they function as carnivores, capturing small prey with numerous long, thin filaments that cover the body.

The sponges lack a well-defined organization of tissues. Single layers of cells line the outer surface of the body and the internal cavities; other cells, both motile and fixed, and fibres occur in an amorphous substance (mesohyl), gelatinous in nature. It has not been possible thus far to identify with certainty similarities of origin (homologies) between the various types of sponge cells and those of higher animals. Each type of sponge cell performs particular functions; the cells either may gather in certain areas of the sponge or form layers and membranes. They are easily modified, both in form and function, during larval development and during adult life. Furthermore, they have a remarkable ability to migrate and to transform from one cell type to another, although the mechanisms involved are not known. Three principal types of cells may be distinguished—choanocytes, archaeocytes, and pinacocytes–collencytes.

The choanocytes are provided with a flagellum, which is surrounded by a collar composed of cytoplasm. The main function of the flagellum apparently is to produce the water current, that of the collar is to capture food particles.

The archaeocytes, which are scattered in the mesohyl, have remarkable potentialities for transformation into various other cell types, especially in the Demospongiae. Some persist and reproduce during the life of the sponge without specializing, thus forming an embryonic reserve from which other cellular types may be derived; others become specialized to carry out particular functions. Archaeocytes, often called amoebocytes, are amoeboid cells (i.e., they have the ability to move); their cytoplasm contains large quantities of ribonucleic acid (RNA), and their large nuclei contain small bodies known as nucleoli. Amoebocytes function in regeneration and in transportation of food particles acquired at the choanocytes throughout the body of the sponge. Amoebocytes laden with various pigments (carotenoids and melanin, sometimes contained in algal symbionts) confer various colours to the sponge.

The archaeocytes may be important in sexual reproduction, if, as is postulated, male and female reproductive cells are derived from them. This role is disputed, however, since in some cases, mainly in the Calcarea, reproductive cells, particularly those of the male, are derived from choanocytes.

Pinacocytes form the pinacoderm, a single cell layer found on the body surface and lining the canals. Various types of pinacocytes occur—basipinacocytes are in contact with the surface to which the sponge is attached, exopinacocytes are found on the surface of the sponge, and endopinacocytes line the canals. Pinacocytes are flattened cells containing many granules; capable of contracting, pinacocytes may cause a reduction in the volume of the sponge if it is disturbed. In the Calcarea, the outer surface of the body also contains flattened granular cells called porocytes because they contain the pores needed to allow water into the sponge. The porocytes can contract, thus closing the pores during unfavourable environmental conditions.

The collencytes, found in the mesohyl, secrete fibres and often form a net in the cytoplasm. The mesohyl of sponges contains other types of cells (lophocytes, sclerocytes, myocytes) believed to be derived from archaeocytes. Lophocytes, similar to but larger than collencytes, have long cytoplasmic processes at one end, giving them the appearance of a comet; they apparently secrete fibres (spongin) that form skeletal material. The sclerocytes, or scleroblasts, which also produce skeletal material, are classified according to the chemical nature of the spicules; calcoblasts secrete calcareous spicules, silicoblasts siliceous (glasslike) ones. The myocytes are elongated, contractile cells, particularly abundant near the oscula, where they control their expansion and contraction. The presence of specialized nerve cells in sponges is a matter of dispute; the general opinion, however, is that none exist, not even in a primitive form.

The skeleton of sponges is of great taxonomic significance. It may be mineral in nature (calcareous or siliceous) or composed of protein and other components (spongin). The mineral skeleton is formed for the most part by units called spicules, either scattered throughout the sponge or united to form fibres; spicules are classified as megascleres, which function in support, and microscleres, which function in protection and also aid in support.

Calcareous spicules, characteristic of the Calcarea, are composed chiefly of calcium carbonate in crystalline forms; e.g., calcite, aragonite. Most calcareous spicules have one axis (monoaxon), which is usually pointed at both ends; these spicules are called oxeas. Triaxons have three rays and are called triacts; tetraxons have four rays and are called tetracts.

Siliceous spicules, found in the Demospongiae and in the Hexactinellida, are made essentially of silicic acid; they also contain some water, a small quantity of other compounds containing sodium, potassium, iron, and chlorine, and a small quantity of organic matter, called spiculin, which forms an axial fibre. The spicules of the Hexactinellida are variable in form and often have remarkable dimensions. Characteristic spicules of the Hexactinellida are triaxon forms with three orthogonal axes (that is, six rays). The spicules are connected in a continuous network, and after the death of the sponge and the loss of its soft parts, the skeleton that remains has a delicate glass texture; e.g., the Venus basket, Euplectella. Bundles of large spicules form stalks that allow members of the Hexactinellida to attach to the muddy bottoms of the deeper parts of the ocean in which they generally live. In the genus Monoraphis, the stalk is one enormous spicule that may attain a length of two or three metres (6.6–10 feet) and a thickness of approximately one centimetre (0.4 inch).

The siliceous spicules, consisting of both megascleres and microscleres, of the Demospongiae have an enormous variety of forms. The megascleres may be monaxons with both ends pointed (oxeas), with one end pointed and the other rounded (styles), or with both ends rounded (strongyles). If one end is swollen styles are called tylostyles and strongyles tylostrongyles; the spicules with both ends swollen are called tylotes. If the surface of the spicules is spiny instead of smooth, the spicules are called, respectively, acanthoxeas, acanthostyles, and acanthostrongyles. The megascleres also include triacts with three rays and tetracts, called calthrops, with four rays. Tetracts with one axis (rhabdome) longer than the other three (collectively the cladome) are called protriaenes, plagiotriaenes, anatriaenes, or dichotriaenes, depending on the way the rays of the cladome are directed.

All of the microscleres apparently are derived from a spherical type with many axons (polyaxon); the result is a series of star-shaped spicules, or asters, with various numbers of rays. Spicules with rays missing or reduced (called spheres, sterrasters, and discasters) often form a protective armour around the sponge. More specialized types of microscleres include sigmas, toxas, chelas, and anchoras; the last two have plates or teeth at each end and may be distinguished as isochelas and isanchoras or anisochelas and anisanchoras, depending on whether the ends are equal or unequal.

A few members of the Demospongiae (e.g., Oscarella, Halisarca, and Chondrosia) lack skeletons. One group (Ceractinomorpha) has a type of spongin, which, in certain orders (Axinellida, Poecilosclerida, and Haplosclerida), cements the spicules in bundles or meshes, thereby increasing the elastic nature of the skeleton. In another group of Demospongiae (Keratosa), spongin fibres constitute the entire skeleton; the spongin fibres may be branched (order Dendroceratida), netlike (order Dictyoceratida), without inclusions (commercial sponges, which are therefore soft and elastic), or with inclusions (e.g., grains of sand, fragments of spicules). In the genus Ircinia, the fibres are accompanied by thin spongin filaments that fill the mesohyl.

Specialized types of skeletons in two groups of great paleontological importance are now represented by only a limited number of species, in the Calcarea and Demospongiae. Calcarean sponges of order Pharetronida have skeletons formed by an amorphous mass of calcium carbonate, with which few spicules are associated. Those in the Demospongiae (Lithistida) form a heterogeneous group in which irregularly branched spicules (desmas) form a compact skeleton. Some Demospongiae, found mainly on the coral reefs, possess a compact calcareous skeleton, which incorporates both siliceous spicules and organic fibres.

The Porifera are primarily filter feeders (filter feeding), utilizing food particles suspended in the water and captured by the choanocytes. Food particles consist essentially of bacteria, other microorganisms, and particles of organic debris; sponges also probably absorb dissolved organic substances. In contrast, cladorhizid sponges feed as carnivores by capturing prey with numerous hairs that cover the body. Experiments with starch grains, bacteria, and particles of carmine pigment show that the particles ingested by the choanocytes are transferred by thesocytes (specialized amoebocytes) throughout the sponge. Intracellular digestion occurs in both choanocytes and thesocytes. A large quantity of food is absorbed by a sponge, and it can use several litres of water a day. The water-current system, therefore, is efficient, in spite of the lack of a nervous coordinating centre. The water flow into and out of the sponge is maintained by continuous movement of the flagella of the choanocytes; flagellar movement pushes water into the choanocyte chambers, creating in them a pressure that extends to the excurrent canals, as water passing into the pores is drawn along the system of incurrent canals. Water flow, which is also regulated by contraction and expansion of the pores and of the oscula, is slow at the pores and faster at the oscula; as a result, water expelled with force through the oscula cannot contaminate water entering the pores. Toxic or irritating substances cause the pores to close.

Respiratory organs are lacking in sponges; oxygen is supplied by a direct exchange between the tissues and the surrounding water. Excretion occurs through both the oscula and the surface of the sponge. Special amoebocytes disintegrate in the mesohyl, and their granules are expelled through the canals. The excretory products of the sponges—ammonia and other nitrogen-containing substances—account for their characteristic unpleasant odour. Many sponges (e.g., the tropical sponge Tedania ignis) exude large quantities of mucus, and some species produce toxic (toxin) substances, which may cause inflammation and skin reactions in humans.

A sponge usually contracts if it is handled. The oscula close if the sponge is exposed to air, if oxygen is not available, if harmful chemical compounds are present, or if temperatures are extremely high or low. The lack of coordination in the oscula, pores, and choanocytes and the slow reaction of sponges to stimuli confirm the absence of a nervous system. A primitive system of coordination, probably chemical in nature, apparently exists. Contraction of myocytes occurs around the oscula and along the peripheral canals of Demospongiae. Some calcareous sponges of the ascon type reduce their volume through contraction of the superficial layer of pinacocytes.

Sponges produce substances with antibiotic activity (e.g., ectyonin), which may function during the selection of bacteria and other microorganisms on which they feed. The Porifera contain a greater variety of fatty substances (e.g., sterols) than do other animals. Some of these sterols (e.g., clionasterol, poriferasterol) are found only in sponges; others (e.g., cholesterol) are common in other animals. Numerous carotenoid pigments occur in sponges, and melanin, chlorophyll, and phycoerythrin derived from algal symbionts and from the diet also occur. Sponges accumulate silicon, calcium, and considerable quantities of metals. The spongins are iodine or bromine-containing scleroproteins similar to the keratin found in skin, claws, hair, and feathers of other animals. The two types of spongin, known as A and B, differ in composition and structure.

Sponges have evolved in a way foreign to that of other animals. They probably arose from flagellated protozoans, although it is not certain which group. The choanocytes of sponges resemble the choanoflagellate protozoans. Choanoflagellate protozoan colonies, however, do not develop by way of embryological stages as do the sponges. The primitive structure of the Porifera indicates affinities with certain types of protozoan colonies; both lack integration of parts, mouths, and digestive systems, and both have a type of skeletal formation in which single elements are produced by a single cell or by a small group of cells.

The Porifera appeared in the Early Cambrian Period of the Paleozoic Era (about 542,000,000 years ago). Of the classes known in the Middle Cambrian Period (Hexactinellida or Hyalospongiae, Heteractinellida, and Demospongiae), the Heteractinellida are extinct; the Calcarea appear in the Carboniferous Period (about 359,000,000 to 299,000,000 years ago). Living sponges do not differ substantially from many groups in the Paleozoic Era.

Despite the mineral skeleton, the only poriferans well represented as fossils are those with a compact skeleton; e.g., pharetronids (Calcarea), lithistids (Demospongiae), and Dictyonina (Hexactinellida). The oldest sponge fossils, from the Lower Cambrian, are well represented in the Burgess Shale of the Middle Cambrian in western Canada by Protospongia, a member of the Hyalospongiae, and by Eiffelia, of the extinct Heteractinellida. They resembled a pouch and had very thin walls; their spicules were arranged in a single layer, and their water-current system was probably of an ascon type. Various genera of the order Lyssacina (Hyalospongiae) are known from the Paleozoic from spicules. In the Mesozoic Era (about 251,000,000 to 66,000,000 years ago), the Hyalospongiae gave rise to a group (order Dictyonina) with the compact skeleton commonly found in sediments. Beginning with the Late Cretaceous Period (about 100,000,000 years ago), the species of Hyalospongiae have affinities with recent ones.

Calcareous sponges appear in the Carboniferous Period (about 359,000,000 to 299,000,000 years ago). The first members of order Pharetronida from the Permian Period (about 299,000,000 to 251,000,000 years ago) had compact calcareous skeletons and spicules; because calcareous spicules are easily dissolved during fossilization, representatives of the Calcarea lack a compact skeleton and have left few traces.

Demospongiae may have followed a line of evolution originating in Tetractinellida (with four-rayed spicules) and advancing, after reduction of the tetraxon spicules into monoaxons, to Keratosa; in addition, the polyaxon microscleres (asters) evolved into specialized forms (sigmas and chelas), and spongin appeared to cement the spicules, finally developing into a skeleton formed exclusively of horny fibres. Recent opinion, however, suggests that the Demospongiae are a diphyletic class, which is separable into two large groups (Tetractinomorpha and Ceractinomorpha). The Tetractinomorpha have four-rayed megascleres, asters, and no spongin; the Ceractinomorpha have monaxon megascleres, no asters, and spongin. That these morphological differences are accompanied by important embryological differences is supported by the facts that the oldest Demospongiae, from the Cambrian, are monaxonid (with only oxeas) and that the four-rayed spicule originates later, in the Carboniferous Period. Well-represented since the Paleozoic, the Lithistida have a siliceous skeleton of netlike desmas and are considered polyphyletic; the lithistid modification of the skeleton appeared independently in different lines of the Demospongiae. Few lithistid genera are extant. Demospongiae lacking a compact skeleton are poorly represented in sediments.

The phylogenetic relationships among the classes are difficult to ascertain, although common spicular characters may be found among Calcarea, Hexactinellida, and tetractinellid Demospongiae. Noteworthy is the existence of sponges with both calcareous and siliceous elements in their skeleton; these sponges show affinities with both the pharetronid Calcarea and the Demospongiae. The extinct Archaeocyatha, with a cup-shaped body fixed on a surface and a skeleton of porous walls, were aberrant forms that lived exclusively in the Cambrian and that are generally considered as a separate phylum, even though they do show some affinities with the Calcarea.

The general architecture of the skeleton is used to differentiate families, the particular combinations of spicular types to define genera, and the form and dimensions of single spicule types to differentiate species. Other morphological characters include shape, colour, consistency, surface (smooth, rough, or conulose), and distribution and character of the oscula, which often shows remarkable interspecies variation. Cytological and embryological features are used as diagnostic characters in both general classification and species identification of the Demospongiae and Calcarea. Ecological and distributional characters are important in distinguishing species, particularly in groups (e.g., haliclonids) in which skeletal and embryological characters are so uniform as to be of little taxonomic value. Although biochemical criteria—for instance, amino acid composition—have been used in some cases to evaluate general phylogenetic problems and separate orders, the results do not differ substantially from those obtained with other criteria.

The classification below, which refers to the three classes of living sponges, is adapted from that of E. Topsent as modified by C. Levi on the basis of embryological data; it is accepted by most experts in the field.