What Does Porifera Mean?

Porifera or Poriferans is a type of sponges that are considered to be the animals of the phylum Porifera. These Poriferans are mainly sessile, primitive, mostly marine filter feeders that dwell in water and use their bodies to pump water and filter out the particles of food matter present in them. Sponges generally represent the simplest of animals.

Theses Poriferas lack true tissues such as parazoa; they also lack nerves, muscles and internal organs. The similarity between Poriferas and colonial choanoflagellates show that they probably made the evolutionary jump from being unicellular to going multicellular organisms.  

There are over 5,000 different types of sponge species which are known to mankind, these sponges can be found attached anywhere on the surfaces from the intertidal zone, they can also be found as deep as 8,500 meters or more than that

Porifera is the scientific name for sponges. They are marine animals and belong to the phylum Porifera. They get their Latin name due to the numerous pores found on their body. Most of these species live in salt water while some of them live in fresh water habitats. They are one of the simplest of multicellular animals as they are assembled from cells and not from tissues as found in other animals. Sponges or poriferans as they are known are primitive and sessile by nature.

Sponges are not able to move about and are permanently attached to rocks or hull of ships. They possess the quality of being able to propel water through their bodies to sieve out particles of food matter. They do not possess muscles, nerves or internal organs due to their lack of parazoa or tissues. There are more than 5000 species as yet that are known to mankind and their existence dates back to Neoproterozoic Era though new species are being discovered even in this time and age.