The list of sponges of South Africa is a list of species that form a part of the poriferan (Phylum Porifera) fauna of South Africa. Taxonomy follows WoRMS. The list follows the SANBI listing on iNaturalist, and does not always agree with WoRMS for distribution.
Sponges (also known as sea sponges), the members of the phylum Porifera (/pəˈrɪfərə/; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts.[excessive citations] They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through them, consisting of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cells.
Sponges have unspecialized cells that can transform into other types and that often migrate between the main cell layers and the mesohyl in the process. Sponges do not have complex nervous, digestive or circulatory systems like humans. Instead, most rely on maintaining a constant water flow through their bodies to obtain food and oxygen and to remove wastes. Believed to be some of the most basal animals alive today, sponges were possibly the first to branch off the evolutionary tree from the last common ancestor of all animals, which would make them the sister group of all other animals. (Full article...)
Subfamily Raspailiinae
Subfamily Cyamoninae
Subfamily Microcioninae
Subfamily Ophlitaspongiinae
Subfamily Ophlitaspongiinae
Suborder Astrophorina
Subfamily Erylinae
Subfamily Geodiinae
Suborder Spirophorina
Subfamily Thorectinae
Subfamily Aulocalycinae
Subfamily Lanuginellinae
Subfamily Acanthascinae
Subfamily Lanuginellinae
Subfamily Rossellinae
Subfamily Corbitellinae