...Robert W. Meech; Peter A. V. Anderson Electrogenic communication appears to have evolved independently in a variety of animal and plant lineages. Considered here are metazoan cells as disparate as the loose three-dimensional parenchyma of glass sponges, the two-dimensional epithelial sheets...

...Michael Nickel; Corina Scheer; Jörg U. Hammel; Julia Herzen; Felix Beckmann SUMMARY Sponges constitute one of the two metazoan phyla that are able to contract their bodies despite a complete lack of muscle cells. Two competing hypotheses on the mechanisms behind this have been postulated to date...

...Eran Hadas; Micha Ilan; Muki Shpigel SUMMARY Oxygen consumption of the Red Sea coral reef sponge Negombata magnifica was measured using both incubation and steady-state methods. The latter method was found to be the more reliable because sponge activity remained stable over time. Oxygen consumption...

... Demospongiae (phylum Porifera), e.g. Tethya aurantium and Suberites domuncula . The class Hexactinellida also forms spicules from this inorganic material. This class of sponges includes species that form the largest biogenic silica structures on earth. The giant basal spicules from the hexactinellids...