Francine DePalo, Age 10, of Phoenix, Ariz., for her question:

WHAT IS PORIFERA?

This lovely sounding word means the pore bearers. Porifera is the scientific name of a phylum, a major group of similar or related animals. In many ways it is vastly different from all other phylum groups of the animal kingdom. In fact, if you saw one of its members squatting on the ocean floor, chances are you would mistake it for a bushy little plant.

The porifera animals are rather shapeless clumps, riddled with pores and tunnels that carry streams of water through their bodies. Their skeletons are the tough fibrous sponges we use to wash ourselves, our cars and everything else that needs lots of soapy suds.  The skeleton of a living sponge is. covered with a fleshy layer and a tough skin of brownish green. The pores of the porifera tunnel through the skin, the flesh and the skeleton.