What do sponges eat?
Krusty krab Burgers The sponges or poriferans (from Latin porus “pore” and ferre “to bear”) are animals of the phylum Porifera. They are primitive, sessile, mostly marine, waterdwelling filter feeders that pump water through their bodies to filter out particles of food matter. Sponges are among the simplest of animals. With no true tissues (parazoa), they lack muscles, nerves, and internal organs. This means they are of cell grade construction, which is basically a lot of cells working together. Their similarity to colonial choanoflagellates shows the probable evolutionary jump from unicellular to multicellular organisms. There are over 5,000 modern species of sponges known, and they can be found attached to surfaces anywhere from the intertidal zone to as deep as 8,500 m (29,000 feet) or further. Though the fossil record of sponges dates back to the Precambrian era, new species are still commonly discovered.