Porifera (Sea Sponges)

"The phylum Porifera, commonly known as sponges (Figure 19.6), are the most primitive of the multicellular animals and have existed on earth for more than 700–800 million years. It is interesting to note that sponges had managed to conceal their true animal nature for several centuries amid the evolutionary changes. Some workers even considered them to be houses of nonliving matter secreted by worms. Robert Grant in 1826 was the first to recognize and prove that sponges are animals. Sponges occur from the intertidal region to the deepest part of the ocean at 2000 to 8840 m. Approximately fifteen thousand species of sponge are known across the world, most of them found in the marine environment whereas only about one percent of the species inhabit freshwater. However, there are a total of 8424 valid species identified to date and still several more waiting for identification in several museum collections, as well as the unexplored seas. In fact, they are more diverse than scleractin corals in coral reef ecosystems around the world. Sponges play a major role in the coral ecosystem, such as in facilitating regeneration of broken reefs and binding live coral to the reef frame. Sponges are broadly classified into three classes: Demospongiae, Calcarea and Hexactinellidae, of which the Demospongiae is the most diverse class containing more than 85 percent of the sponges identified to date."

Source: Venkataraman, K. and Raghunathan, C. (2015). Coastal and Marine Biodiversity of India, pp. 303-348. In: Venkataraman, Krishnamoorthy and Sivaperuman, Chandrakasan (eds.). Marine Faunal Diversity in India: Taxonomy, Ecology and Conservation. Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-801948-1.00019-7

Class: Calcarea

Order: Leucosolenida

Family: Lelapiidae

Family: Syconidae

Class: Demospongiae

Order: Axinellida

Family: Raspailiidae

Order: Clionaida

Family: Clionaidae

Order: Poecilosclerida

Family: Dendoricellidae

Order: Tetractinellida

Family: Scleritodermidae

Family: Tetillidae

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