What type of digestion do sponges have

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What are poriferans? They are multicellular, like all organisms of the animal kingdom. Sponges Review - Image Diversity: poriferans.

How do sponges live? What is the typical shape of poriferans? Sponges Review - Image Diversity: sponge structure. How does water move inside sponges?

What is the function of the pores in these animals? How do sponges try to protect themselves against environmental dangers? Is this method efficient or rudimentary? Tweets by BiologyAnswers. What do sponges use to digest food? Dr Birendra Kumar Mishra. Nov 17, Sponges have digestive maintaining a constant water flow through their bodies. Explanation: Sponges are the members of phylum Porifera. They don't have nervous, digestive, circulatory systems etc.

Digestion in sponges takes place inside the canal system. The choanocytes and the amoebocytes that are present in the canal system of the sponge helps to perform intracellular digestion by digesting the food particles inside the cellular food vacuoles by means of various acidic and alkaline enzymes.

These cells take in the particles through phagocytosis and then digest them while expelling wastes. Amoebocytes and choanocytes have the ability to transfer food particles to other cells. Here, instead of the choanocytes, amoebocytes are the main site of digestion. Sponges do not have a digestive system. Digestion is simple and takes place by intracellular digestion. Their food is trapped as water passes through the ostia and out through the osculum in the canal system pathway.

Choanocytes and amoebocytes are the most important cells in the digestion of the food in sponges. The Choanocytes contain microvilli that capture the food and takes it within its food vacuoles where partial digestion takes place. Next, that partially digested food is transported to the amoebocytes from the choanocytes, where further digestion, storage, and transportation of food to other cells take place. Most sponges are detritivores meaning that they eat organic debris particles and microscopic life forms that they filter out of ocean water.

They obtain food from the flow of water through their bodies and from symbiotic algae. Their food mainly contains small and tiny organisms, phytoplankton, small zooplanktons, organic dead matters, algae particles, etc.

Their mechanism of feeding and then digestion of the captured food is actually done in a filter-feeding way.

This all happens in the canal system. In order to obtain food, sponges pass water through their bodies that is via. Sponges may also become sequentially hermaphroditic , producing oocytes first and spermatozoa later. This temporal separation of gametes produced by the same sponge helps to encourage cross-fertilization and genetic diversity. Spermatozoa carried along by water currents can fertilize the oocytes borne in the mesohyl of other sponges.

Early larval development occurs within the sponge, and free-swimming larvae such as flagellated parenchymula are then released via the osculum. Sponges are generally sessile as adults and spend their lives attached to a fixed substratum. They do not show movement over large distances like other free-swimming marine invertebrates. However, sponge cells are capable of creeping along substrata via organizational plasticity , i.

Under experimental conditions, researchers have shown that sponge cells spread on a physical support demonstrate a leading edge for directed movement. It has been speculated that this localized creeping movement may help sponges adjust to microenvironments near the point of attachment. It must be noted, however, that this pattern of movement has been documented in laboratories, it remains to be observed in natural sponge habitats. Watch this BBC video showing the array of sponges seen along the Cayman Wall during a submersible dive.

These organisms show very simple organization, with a rudimentary endoskeleton of spicules and spongin fibers. Glass sponge cells are connected together in a multinucleated syncytium.

Although sponges are very simple in organization, they perform most of the physiological functions typical of more complex animals. Figure Which of the following statements is false? Most sponge body plans are slight variations on a simple tube-within-a-tube design. Which of the following is a key limitation of sponge body plans? Pinacocytes are epithelial-like cells, form the outermost layer of sponges, and enclose a jelly-like substance called mesohyl.

In some sponges, porocytes form ostia, single tube-shaped cells that act as valves to regulate the flow of water into the spongocoel. Describe the feeding mechanism of sponges and identify how it is different from other animals.

The sponges draw water carrying food particles into the spongocoel using the beating of flagella on the choanocytes. The food particles are caught by the collar of the choanocyte and are brought into the cell by phagocytosis. Digestion of the food particle takes place inside the cell. The difference between this and the mechanisms of other animals is that digestion takes place within cells rather than outside of cells. It means that the organism can feed only on particles smaller than the cells themselves.

Skip to content Invertebrates. Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to do the following: Describe the organizational features of the simplest multicellular organisms Explain the various body forms and bodily functions of sponges.

Sponges are members of the phylum Porifera, which contains the simplest invertebrates. Morphology of Sponges There are at least 5, named species of sponges, likely with thousands more yet to be classified. Link to Learning. Visual Connection.