What is Sponge (animal)?
{{for|sponges used for washing|Sponge (tool)}} {{Automatic taxobox |name = Porifera |taxon = Porifera |fossil_range = {{fossil range|Ediacaran|recent}} |image = Aplysina archeri (Stove-pipe Sponge-pink variation).jpg |image_caption = A [[Aplysina archeri|stove-pipe sponge]] |authority = [[Robert Edmund Grant|Grant]], 1836 |type_species=''[[Amphimedon queenslandica]]''<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Srivastava M, Simakov O, Chapman J, Fahey B, Gauthier ME, Mitros T, Richards GS, Conaco C, Dacre M, Hellsten U, Larroux C, Putnam NH, Stanke M, Adamska M, Darling A, Degnan SM, Oakley TH, Plachetzki DC, Zhai Y, Adamski M, Calcino A, Cummins SF, Goodstein DM, Harris C, Jackson DJ, Leys SP, Shu S, Woodcroft BJ, Vervoort M, Kosik KS, Manning G, Degnan BM, Rokhsar DS | display-authors = 6 | title = The Amphimedon queenslandica genome and the evolution of animal complexity | journal = Nature | volume = 466 | issue = 7307 | pages = 720–6 | date = August 2010 | pmid = 20686567 | pmc = 3130542 | doi = 10.1038/nature09201 | bibcode = 2010Natur.466..720S }}</ref>|subdivision_ranks = Classes |subdivision = * [[Calcarea]] * [[Hexactinellida]] * [[Demospongiae]] * [[Homoscleromorpha]] * †[[Stromatoporoidea]] |synonyms=[[Parazoa]]/Ahistozoa (''sans'' [[Placozoa]])<ref>{{Cite journal |journal=Ethnolinguistic |last1=Pajdzińska |first1=Anna | name-list-style = vanc |title=Animals die more shallowly: they aren't deceased, they're dead. Animals in the polish linguistic worldview and in contemporary life sciences|doi=10.17951/et.2017.29.135|url=http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.ojs-doi-10_17951_et_2017_29_135/c/4972-5509.pdf|date=2018|volume=29|pages=147–161}}</ref>}} A '''sponge''' is a member of the [[phylum]] '''Porifera'''. It is a simple [[animal]] with many cells, but no [[mouth]], [[muscles]], [[heart]] or [[brain]]. It is [[sessile]]: it cannot move from place to place the way most animals can. A sponge is an animal that grows in one spot like most plants do. Nevertheless, sponges are quite successful. The ba