Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through them, consisting of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cells.
Sponge
Sponge biodiversity and morphotypes at the lip of a wall site in 60 feet (20 m) of water. Included are the yellow tube sponge, Aplysina fistularis, the purple vase sponge, Niphates digitalis, the red encrusting sponge, Spirastrella coccinea, and the gray rope sponge, Callyspongia sp.
Spongia officinalis, "the kitchen sponge", is dark grey when alive.
Euplectella aspergillum, a glass sponge known as "Venus' flower basket"
In biology, a phylum is a level of classification or taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class. Traditionally, in botany the term division has been used instead of phylum, although the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants accepts the terms as equivalent. Depending on definitions, the animal kingdom Animalia contains about 31 phyla, the plant kingdom Plantae contains about 14 phyla, and the fungus kingdom Fungi contains about 8 phyla. Current research in phylogenetics is uncovering the relationships among phyla within larger clades like Ecdysozoa and Embryophyta.
Image: Amoeba proteus
Image: Toxoplasma gondii
Image: Aplanonet 3
Image: Euglypha sp