SYSTEM

IN
SPONGES
THINGS TO BE
DISCUSSED..........
INTRODUCTION.
ASCON TYPE.
SYCON TYPE.
 GENERAL
INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS CANAL SYSTEM?
Body of all Sponges is perforated by large number
of apertures through which water enters inside
body and flows through a system of criss-crossing
canals collectively forming the Canal System
which is characteristic feature of PORIFERANS.
WHAT IS THE NEED OF CANAL SYSTEM?
The entire physiological activities of the animal
depend on the water current and the exchange
between the body and the exterior arc maintained
through water current.
The food and oxygen are brought through this
current while excreta and reproductive bodies
are excluded through this current.
In short Canal System is known as the Lifeline
of the Sponges and it is the most well known
characteristic feature of the Sponges.
WHAT ARE THE PARTS INVOLVED IN CANAL
SYSTEM?
A typical canal system is composed by
following components.
[a] Incurrent Canal- It opens externally to the
outside by a small pore known as the Incurrent
Pore but internally it ends blindly.
[b] Radial Canal-It is closed externally but
opens internally by a minute pores into a
central cavity or cloacal cavity which cannot
be compared in any way with the stomach or
intestine of other animals.
[c] Prosopyle -It is a smaller canal or passage
way connecting incurrent canal with radial
canal.
 TYPES OF
CANAL
SYSTEM
The arrangement and complexity of the canal
system varies considerably in different
sponges and has been divided into four types.
ASCO
N
TYPE
It is the simplest type of canal system in which the
body is thin walled radially symmetrical and hollow
due to the central cavity.
This cavity is known as the spongocoel or paragastric
cavity that opens to the outside by means of a
circular aperture at the free distal end of the cylinder.
The body wall of Ascon type is formed of two
layers.The outer layer is called ectoderm and the
inner layer is known as endodem.The ectoderm is
formed of thin and flat Pinacocytes while endoderm
is formed by the choanocytes and lines the
spongocoel.
Present in some calcareous sponges like Clalhrina
Beside this,it is found in Leucosolenia and some
other Sponges.
SYCON
TYPE
It is more complex system as it is folded version of the
Asconoid body.It is found in Scypha and the
embryonic development of Scypha clearly shows the
asconoid type by the outpushings of the wall of an
asconoid sponge at regular intervals into finger like
projections called radial canals.
At first these canals are in direct with the outside
water but in most of the sponges the wall of the radial
canal fuse in such a manner that tubular incurrent
canals are formed in between.
These incurrent canals open to the exterior by dermal
ostia or dermal pores.
The spongocoel opens to the exterior by a large single
Osculum.The wall between incurrent and radial canals
is pierced by numerous minute pores called
Prosopyles.