Typization of Sponge Development and Its Significance for Phylogeny

Abstract

Though the morphology of sponges is highly plastic and diverse, we can always find a set of morphological characters typical of a species, genus, family, and order. In sponges, these specific features are associated not only with the adult individuals, as is usually the case in taxonomy, but also with earlier ontogenetic stages. Therefore, to reveal all the structures characterizing a taxon, a comparative study of all the life-cycle stages is necessary.