Question

Which among the following is a universal property for sponges?
(a)Marine
(b)Calcareous spicules
(c)Radial symmetry
(d)High regeneration power

Answer 1

Hint: Two distinct members of the genus living in various water environments are Sycon and Spongilla. The ability to replace their missing body parts is the fundamental property of sponges. Example: Echinoderms exhibit autotomy, like starfish. They are able to regenerate arms and body parts.

Complete answer:
Sponges have a tremendous regenerative capacity. Regeneration can be characterized as the natural ability to live organisms, during the post-embryonic life of an organism, to replace worn out parts, repair or renovate damaged or missing parts of the body, or to reconstitute the whole body from a tiny fragment. For sponges, regeneration is a universal property.
The entire body can be rebuilt from separated body cells in sponges such as Leucosolenia. In order to form bilayered sponge body walls, the cells rearrange and reorganize.
Sponges are known to regenerate from broken-off fragments, but this only works if the fragments contain the correct cell types. By budding, a few species reproduce. . Many freshwater and a few marine organisms grow gemmules, "survival pods" of unspecialized cells that remain dormant until conditions improve. These species then either form entirely new sponges or recolonize the skeletons of their parents when, for example, when temperatures drop, environmental conditions become less hospitable for the sponges.

Additional Information: Marine (for example, Sycon) or freshwater (for example, Spongilla) sponges are different classifications of sponges.
In the skeleton of sponges belonging to the Calcarea class, calcareous spicules occur.
If the body can be split into identical halves by any plane that passes through the middle of the body from top to bottom, sponges can have radial symmetry or they may be asymmetrical if they can not be cut through any plane of the body into identical halves.
So, the correct answer is, ‘High regeneration power’.

Note: A basal Metazoa (animal) clade as a sister of the Diploblasts is the sponges, members of the phylum Porifera (meaning 'pore bearer'). They are multicellular species, consisting of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cells, having bodies full of pores and channels that allow water to flow through them. Sponges have non-specialized cells that can turn into other forms, often migrating in the process between the main cell layers and the mesohyl. Spongiology is classified as the branch of zoology that studies sponges.