Class:
Calcarea
675 species (2011)
All species in this class are strictly marine, most found in tropical water and are sedentary filter feeders. Species in this group have rigid calcium carbonate spines.
Sub-class:
Calcinea
Orders:
Clathrinida
Murrayonida
Sub-class:
Calcaronea
Orders:
Baerida
Leucosolendia
Lithonida
Class:
Demospongiae
8,800 species (2023)
This class includes 81 percent of all sponge species. Most are marine dwellers, one lives in fresh water. Some are brightly colored, and there is a great variety of body shapes among species with the largest more than three feet across. Reproduction is both sexually and asexually. The life-span of many of these species can by from 500 to 1,000 years. Species in this group have silica spines.
Sub-class:
Heteroscleromorpha, 17 orders
Keratosa, horny sponges, 2 orders
Verongimorpha, sea sponges, 3 orders
Orders:
Class:
Hexactinellida
600 species
This class are sponges with a skeleton made of four and or six pointed siliceous spicules and are called glass sponges. These species are relatively uncommon and are mostly found between 1500 to 3000 feet in depth. However, some species are found in deeper or in shallower water.
Some glass sponges fuse together to create reefs or bioherms. They color is generally pale ranging from whitel to orange. These creatures are long lived, with the estimated age of one species as over twenty thousand years.
Species in this group have silica spines.
Orders:
Class:
Homoscleromoprpha
87 species
This class of marine sponges is composed of only two families, Plakinidae and Oscarellidae. Previously separated from Demospongiae on the basis of molecular and morphological evidence.
Reproduction is viviparous (development of the embryo inside the body of the parent, eventually leading to live birth, as opposed to reproduction by laying eggs that complete their incubation outside the parental body) and the larva is an oval form known as an amphiblastula.
Species in this group have silica spines.
Orders:
Class:
VVV5
### species (YEAR5)
Includes:
Orders:
Conservation Status
EX Extinct
EW Extinct in the Wild
CR Critically Endangered
EN Endangered
VU Vulnerable
NT Near Threatened
CD Conservation Dependent
LC Least Concern
NL Not Listed
