Explore Sponges (Porifera)

Sponges are colonial animals that grow attached to rocks or living things and obtain food filtering particles of plankton and detritus from the water through an intricate network of pores and internal spaces. Many living sponges are brightly coloured and their presence on reefs, particularly deep reefs and beneath ledges, gives a lot of Victoria’s underwater environments their spectacular colour. The skeleton of a sponge consists of an elastic material called spongin (used in bath sponges), as well as in many species, a network of needle-like spicules of silica.

Life on the Edge Booklet