Porifera Vocabulary

2. is a mobile cell (moving like an amoeba) in the body of invertebrates including echinoderms, molluscs, tunicates, sponges and some chelicerates.
4. (Mesenchyme) the gelatinous matrix within a sponge. The mesohyl resembles a type of connective tissue and contains several amoeboid cells such as amebocytes, as well as fibrils and skeletal elements.
7. a slender pointed usually hard body especially : one of the minute calcareous or siliceous bodies that support the tissue of various invertebrates (such as sponges).
8. tubular cells which make up the pores of a sponge known as ostia.
9. genus of marine sponges of the class Calcarea (calcareous sponges), characterized by a fingerlike body shape known as the syconoid type of structure.
10. (Pinacocyte) the epidermis is the layer of cells that covers the outer surface of the sponge. The thin, flattened cells of the epidermis are called pinacocytes.
12. a sponge of a grade of structure of the simplest type, in the form of a tube or bag lined with choanocytes.
14. the distinct from the botanical meaning of sessility, which refers to an organism or biological structure attached directly by its base without a stalk.

1. a tough-coated dormant cluster of embryonic cells produced by a freshwater sponge for development in more favorable conditions.
3. a flagellated cell with a collar of protoplasm at the base of the flagellum, numbers of which line the internal chambers of sponges.
5. a sponge of the most complex structure, composed of a mass of flagellated chambers and water canals.
6. an excretory structure in the living sponge, a large opening to the outside through which the current of water exits after passing through the spongocoel.
11. Spongin gives a sponge its flexibility. True spongin is found only in members of the class Demospongiae.
13. (singular ostium) the pores in sponges through which water enters the body. any of the openings in the heart of an arthropod through which blood enters.