General characteristics of Phylum Porifera Kingdom: Animalia Habitat: Aquatic, mostly marine, few are terrestrial Habit: They are solitary or colonial. Grade of organization: cellular grade of body Shape: Body shape is variable, mostly cylinder shaped Symmetry: Asymmetrical or radially symmetrical. Germ layer: Diploblastic animals. The adult body wall contains two layers, outer dermal layer and inner gastral layer. In between these two layers, there is a gelatinous and non-cellular mesoglea ... Meta description: Explore Porifera with examples like sea sponges, their unique characteristics, and differences from other aquatic organisms in this comprehensive guide. Phylum Porifera are the lowest multicellular animals belonging to the kingdom Animalia. The word “ Porifera ” mainly refers to the pore bearers or pore bearing species. Scottish Anatomist and Zoologist Robert Edmond Grant proposed the name Porifera (L. Porus, pore and ferre, to bear). The representatives of Phylum Porifera are also known as Sponges. They are simple types of aquatic invertebrates. This phylum contains about 10000 species; among them, most of the species are Marine and some are freshwater (about 100 species). Their body is asymmetrical or radially symmetrical with a variety of sizes and colors. They can prefer to live in tidal zones to almost ...
