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Sponge lab

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Embryological developmental characteristics: Molusca are Triploblastic, Eucoelomates, and Protostomes. Unsegmented soft body with bilateral symmetry. Presence of an internal or external shell. A toothed tongue (made mostly of chitin) called the radula. A mantle which is a fold in the body wall that lines the shell.
Major Animals: snails, clams, mussels, squid, octopus, cuttlefish, scallops.
Distinction between groups: A clam is any of various bivalve mollusks, especially certain edible species.
Mussels are any bivalve mollusk, especially an edible marine bivalve of the family Mytilidae and a freshwater clam of the family Unionidae. And scallops are any of the bivalve mollusks of the genus Argopecten (Pecten) andrelated genera that swim by rapidly clapping the fluted shell valves together.
Anatomical characteristics: Many molusca have shells, an extension of the body wall called the mantle, one pair or only one feather-shaped gill found in the mantle cavity, underside consists of a muscular foot, a muscular mouths with a radula ("tongues") lined with many rows of teeth made from chitin. The coelom is a fluid-filled cavity that develops within the body. It functions as a hydrostatic skeleton and provides a space in which the internal organs can be suspended. A haemocoel is a series of spaces between the organs of organisms with open circulatory systems, like most arthropods and molluscs. Blood and other fluids circulate through the haemocoel. The heart is an important part of the circulatory system, pumping blood into the haemocoel, as well as an important part the reproductive and excretory systems. Excretion is carried out by a pair of “kidneys” (nephridia), tubular structures that collect fluids from the coelom and exchange salts and other substances with body tissues as the fluid passes along the tubules for excretion. Molluscs have two pairs of main nerves (three in bivalves) the visceral cords serving the internal organs and the pedal ones serving the foot. Only some species of molluscs have a brain.The simplest molluscan reproductive system relies on external fertilization.
Important life cycle: Mollusks are primarily of separate sexes, reproduction via an unfertilized gamete (parthenogenesis). Most reproduction, however, is by sexual means. Eggs and sperm are released into the water by members of some (primitive) species, and fertilization occurs there. Fertilization by transfer of capsules containing sperm (spermatophores) typically occurs in cephalopods and some gastropods. Many mollusks develop into free-swimming larvae; As the larva continues to develop, the shell, mantle cavity, tentacles, and foot appear.A substantial change in shell morphology usually marks the transition to adult form.Secondary (newly evolved) larvae have developed among some freshwater bivalves and some cephalopods.

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Embryological developmental characteristics: Rotifera are multicellular, heterotrophic (dependent on other organisms for nutrients), and lack cell walls. But it possess a unique combination of traits that distinguish them from other animals, including bilateral symmetry and a pseudocoelom , a fluid-filled body cavity between two different layers of embryonic tissue.
Major Animals:  Rotifers. Phylum Rotifera is divided into three classes: Monogononta, Bdelloidea, and Seisonidea. The largest group is the Monogononta, with about 1500 species, followed by the Bdelloidea, with about 350 species. There are only two known species of Seisonidea, which is usually regarded as the most "primitive", and in morphological analyses it comes out in a basal position.
Distinction between groups: Rotifers are multicellular animals with body cavities that are partially lined by mesoderm. These organisms have specialized organ systems and a complete digestive tract that includes both a mouth and anus.
Anatomical  characteristics: Rotifers have bilateral symmetry and a variety of different shapes. The body of a rotifer is divided into a head, trunk, and foot, and is typically somewhat cylindrical. The most distinctive feature of rotifers is the presence of a ciliated structure, called the corona, on the head.
Important life cycle: Some species consist only of females that producetheir daughters from unfertilized eggs, asexually, a type of reproduction called parthenogenesis  Other species produce two kinds of eggs that develop by parthenogenesis: one kind forms females and the other kind develops into degenerate males that cannot even feed themselves (sexual dimorphism).

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Embryological developmental characteristics:

All cnidarians have two membrane layers in the body: the epidermis and the gastrodermis; between both layers they have the mesoglea, which is a connective layer.

Cnidarians contain specialized cells known as cnidocytes (“stinging cells”), which contain organelles called nematocysts (stingers).

Major animals: Corals, sea anemones, jellyfish.
Distinctions between groups: Jellyfish bodies are bell- or umbrella-shaped and have been described as a “sac within a sac.” Soft corals are really a colony of genetically identical, sac-like, cylindrical polyps connected by soft, fleshy tissue.Anemones are stinging polyps that spend most of their time attached to rocks on the sea bottom or on coral reefs waiting for fish to pass close enough to get ensnared in their venom-filled tentacles.
Anatomical characteristics:  Cnidarians are diploblastic- their cells are organized into true tissues. Cnidarians are essentially bags made of two cell layers. The outer ectoderm, or epidermis, contains the cnidocysts, the stinging cells. They are radially symmetrical, jelly-like and have a nerve net and one body opening.

Important life cycle: Cnidarians all have a life cycle of two forms. One is a free-swimming jellyfish medusa stage and the second is an attached polyp stage.

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Embryological developmental characteristics: The annelids are bilaterally symmetrical, triploblastic, coelomate, invertebrate organisms. They also have parapodia for locomotion. They lack lungs. Some have simple gills, and the rest breathe through their skins, a process that requires constant moisture. They also have functioning nervous systems, complete with brains. They also have series of ganglia, one per segment, that assist them in controlling their bodies.
Major Animals: earthworm, leeches. polychaets
Distinction between groups: Earthworm are coldblooded creatures are hermaphrodites, meaning each one is both male and female, and they reproduce by laying eggs encased in cocoons. Some leeches feed on the blood of turtles and fish, but others never drink any blood. MaMost leeches live in water, but a few types are amphibious and can survive on land for short periods of time. Many of polychaets spend the first part of their lives as free-floating zooplankton until they eventually develop into their adult form and begin life down in the sand.
Anatomical characteristics: Annelids  are constructed by way of a tube within a body tube (Annelids have a complete gut. They have a mouth and an anus). This digestive tract runs through the center of the body. Segmented worms are known for being segmented externally as well as internally. The internal walls that separate the parts of the annelid are called septa. Most of these septa are similar but, there is a varying degree of similarity because some septa are needed to preform specialized tasks. For example, the first segments may carry one or more pairs of eyes and another one will be specialized other sense organs.
Important life cycle:

Some annelids reproduce asexually and others reproduce sexually

However some do both, often the worm will be asexually in the summer and sexually in autumn

When they reproduce asexually they do it by dividing themselves into two or more pieces

Otherwise they have sex with a member of the opposite sex even though they all have both reproductive systems

Many annelids have both the female reproductive system and the male reproductive system or they change throughout their lives

Other times they just act one sex for their entire life

Some breed only once in their lives while others breed continuously throughout their lives

Earthworms store their partners' sperm in spermathecae and then the clitellum produces a cocoon that collects ova from the ovaries and then sperm from the spermathecae

Fertilization and development of earthworm eggs takes place in the cocoon however Leeches' eggs are fertilized in the ovaries, and then transferred to the cocoon

They all hatch as miniature adults rather than larvae

The Leeches are the only annelids that have never been seen reproducing asexually

They hatch as young adults and then grow until they are mature

Because they are able to regenerate any lost body parts (even their head) you would think that they could live a very long time, however often they are eaten before they can live a long life.

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Embryological developmental characteristics:  are a phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, unsegmented, soft-bodied invertebrates. They are acoelomates (having no body cavity), and have no specialized circulatory and respiratory organs. The digestive cavity has only one opening for both ingestion (intake of nutrients) and egestion (removal of undigested wastes).
Major Animals: Tapeworms (Cestoda), Turbellaria (planarian), Trematoda, Monogenea
Distinction between groups: Free-living turbellarians are mostly black, brown or gray, but some larger ones are brightly colored. The skin of Trematodes is a syncitium, a layer of cells that shares a single external membrane. The adults of all 3,400 cestode species are internal parasites. Cestodes have no mouths or guts, and the syncitial skin absorbs nutrients from the host. Monogeneans lack respiratory, skeletal and circulatory systems and have no or weakly developed oral suckers.
Anatomical characteristics: A flatworm has no skeleton. It has tiny bristles called cilia that help it move as well as two layers of muscles under its skin. It has three cell layers called the endoderm, the mesoderm and the ectoderm.
Important life cycle: Flatworms are one of the first critters to hatch when the pools start filling with rainwater. The young hatch from eggs and look similar to the adults. When they are mature, Flatworms mate and lay dark, round eggs. Most Flatworms are hermaphroditic, meaning they are both male and female. Every Flatworm can mate with any other Flatworm if it is the same species.

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Embryological developmental characteristics: Echinodermata, phylum of exclusively marine bottom-dwelling invertebrates having external skeletons of calcareous plates just beneath the skin.The skin usually has warty projections or spines, or both. Display pentamerous ( five) radial symmetry. There is no head; the surface containing the mouth (the underside, in sea stars and most others) is called the oral surface, and the opposite side, which usually bears the anus, the aboral surface.
Major Animals: Class Asteroidea: sea stars Class Ophiuroidea: The brittlestars, or serpent stars Class Echinoidea: sea urchins, heart urchins, and sand dollars
Class Holothuroidea: sea cucumbers Class Crinoidea: The sea lilies and feather stars Class Concentricycloidea: The sea daisies
Distinction between groups: Sea stars,  vary in shape from nearly circular, to pentagonal, to the familiar starlike and flowerlike forms with five or more tapering arms. The arms are extensions of the body; each contains an extension of the body cavity, a radial canal, and body organs. The brittlestars, or serpent stars, are so called for their long, slender, fragile arms, which are set off sharply from the circular, pentagonal, or slightly star-shaped body disk. The sea urchins (regular echinoids) are hemispherical in shape, round on top and flat on the lower surface. They have very long, prominent spines and are often brightly colored. The sea cucumbers are long-bodied echinoderms with the mouth at or near one end and the anus at or near the other. Because of their elongation along the oral-aboral plane, they lie on their sides rather than on the oral surface. The sea lilies and feather stars are members of an ancient group of stalked, sessile, detritus-feeding echinoderms. Most of the sea lilies remain stalked throughout life; their movements include bending the stalk and the arms and crawling. The sea daisies, which were discovered in 1986, have disk-shaped flat bodies and are less than 0.39 in. (1 cm) in diameter.
Anatomical characteristics: The radially symmetrical body cavity contains a system of water-filled canals unique to echinoderms. Called the water-vascular system, it connects with the tube feet,  which are extensions of the body wall that generally protrude through holes in the skeleton. The areas with such holes are called ambulacra. The tube feet often have suction cups on their tips and are used for locomotion in most echinoderms; they also function in feeding, respiration, and sensory reception.There is a simple nervous system sensitive to temperature, light, and vibrations, with the various body projections serving as sensory receptors. Echinoderms have extensive powers of regeneration of lost or injured parts.
Important Life Cycle: Most species reproduce sexually, and species have separate sexes. Fertilization is external; the gametes are simply shed into the water at spawning time. The floating embryo develops into a ciliated, free-swimming, bilaterally symmetrical larva, which undergoes metamorphosis into the radially symmetrical adult.

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Embryological developmental characteristics: Chordates are deuterostomes, as during the embryo development stage the anus forms before the mouth. They are also bilaterally symmetric coelomates. In the case of vertebrate chordates, the notochord is usually replaced by a vertebral column during development, and they may have body plans organized by segmentation.
Major animals: The phylum includes the subphyla Vertebrata, which includes fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals; Tunicata, which includes salps and sea squirts; and Cephalochordata, comprising the lancelets.
Distinction between groups:
Craniates all have distinct skulls. They include the hagfish which have no vertebrae. Most are vertebrates, in which the notochord is replaced by the vertebral column. Most tunicates appear as adults in two major forms, both of which are soft-bodied filter-feeders that lack the standard features of chordates: "sea squirts" are sessile and consist mainly of water pumps and filter-feeding apparatus; salps float in mid-water, feeding on plankton, and have a two-generation cycle in which one generation is solitary and the next forms chain-like colonies. Cephalochordates are earliest-branching chordate sub-phylum animals that lack brains, clearly defined heads and specialized sense organs.
Anatomical characteristics:  They possess a notochord, a hollow dorsal nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, an endostyle, and a post-anal tail, for at least some period of their life cycle.
Important Life Cycle: The chordate life cycle begins with fertilization (the union of sperm and egg). In its primitive form, fertilization occurs externally, in the water. Asexual reproduction takes place in tunicates and in some vertebrates (females of some fish and lizards can reproduce without fertilization). Hermaphroditism (possessing both male and female reproductive organs) is found in tunicates and some fishes, but otherwise the sexes are separate. Internal fertilization, viviparity and parental care are common in tunicates and vertebrates.

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Embryological developmental characteristics:  Arthropods are triploblastic (they have three germ layers) and are coelomate organisms. They are metameric organisms (segmented body), they have an exoskeleton made of chitin and they have articulated limbs.
Major Animals: Ants, flies, cockroaches, shrimp, crabs, spiders and scorpions.
Distinction between groups:
CRUSTACEA Main Body Regions | two - cephalothorax* and abdomen (some with head and trunk) Pair of legs| five or more Pair of antennae| two Wings| absent
MYRIAPODA | two - head and trunk | many - one or two per trunk segment | one | absent
ARACHNIDA | two - cephalothorax* and abdomen | four | none (though palps may resemble antennae or legs) | absent
INSECTA | three - head, thorax and abdomen | three | one | usually present (but many wingless forms)
Interesting Facts: arthropods are evolutionarily closer to annelids, as they also have segmented bodies.
Anatomical characteristics: The digestive tract of arthropods is complete, containing a mouth and an anus. Arthropods are protostome animals, meaning that the blastopore produces the mouth, during their embryonic development.
In arthropods, the respiratory system is open (lacunar). Blood, also known as hemolymph, is pumped by the heart and enters into cavities (lacunas), irrigating and draining tissues.All arthropods have a heart. Crustaceans and arachnids have respiratory pigments. Most insects do not have respiratory pigments, since their blood does not carry gases (in insects, gases reach tissues and cells through tracheal structures). However, some insects do have the respiratory pigment hemoglobin (a contribution from Jacob Campbell).
Important Life Cycle: Reproduction in animals of the phylum Arthropoda is sexual, with a larval stage in some insects and crustaceans (arachnids only go through direct development).Due to the presence of the exoskeleton, the growth of arthropods is periodical. During the growth period, the animal loses the exoskeleton, grows and develops a new exoskeleton. This process is called ecdysis or molting. Some species of arthropods reproduce through external fertilization whereas others use internal fertilization. Internal fertilization is predominant.The period during which the larva is within its cocoon is a time of intense biological activity since the larva is being transformed into an adult insect.

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Embryological developmental characteristics : Sponges have no embryonic layers such as ectoderm or endoderm, characteristic to eumetazoans and, consequently, no gastrulation.

Major animals: Hexactinellida (glass sponges), the Demospongia, and the Calcarea (calcareous sponges).
Distinction between groups: Hexactinellida are exclusively marine sponges with mineral skeletons composed of silica (glass) spicules. Demospongiae skeletons are composed of spongin fibers or siliceous spicules, in contrast to the calcareous sponges. Common feature of Calcarea is the supporting skeleton, made of calcareous, star shaped structures - or spicules. These usually have three points, but some species have two or four pointed spicules. Reproduction may be both sexual and asexual, by budding.
Anatomical characteristics: The body of a sponge is a collection of a few different types of cells loosely arranged in a gelatinous matrix called a 'mesohyl', mesoglea or mesenchyme. This mesohyl is the connective tissue of a sponge body and it is supported by the skeletal elements.

Important life cycle: Sponges are hermaphroditic, they function as either male or female for reproduction. They can even produce eggs and sperm at different points in time. An adult sponge has two choices on how offspring can be produced, asexually or sexually.