Endoskeleton three phyla and one subclass of animals, endoskeletons of various complexity are found: Chordata, Echinodermata, Porifera, and Coleoidea. An endoskeleton may function purely for support (as in the case of sponges), but often serves as an attachment site for muscle and a mechanism for transmitting muscular forces. A true endoskeleton is derived from mesodermal tissue. Such a skeleton is present in echinoderms and chordates. The poriferan 'skeleton' consists of microscopic calcareous or siliceous spicules or a spongin network. The Coleoidae do not have a true endoskeleton in the evolutionary sense; there, a mollusk exoskeleton evolved into several sorts of internal
Nephridium In freshwater crustacea, the saccate metanephridia are especially large because they are involved in osmoregulation. They have to remove large amounts of water from the tissues, as the crustacean's tissues are hypertonic to the surrounding water. A protonephridium ("proto" = "first") is a network of dead-end tubules lacking internal openings found in the phyla Platyhelminthes, Nemertea, Rotifera and Chordata (lancelets). The ends are called "flame cells" (if ciliated) or "solenocytes" (if flagellated); they function in osmoregulation and ionoregulation, respectively. The terminal cells are located at the blind end of the protonephridium. Each cell has one or more cilia and their