• Food source– Carnivores eat clams

(starfish)– Filter feeders filter

plankton (sea cucumber)

• Marine environments– Ranging from shallow

waters to the deep sea

• Environment– Their skeletons contribute

to the limestone formation; helps with geographic information.

• Humans– Contribute to the overall

knowledge of animal fertilization.

– Fossils also used to decorate homes.

• Echinoderm means:– “spiny skin”

• Been around since the Cambrian period.• Regeneration

– Regrows an arm or body part– Asexual reproduction

• Internal skeletons– Made of Calcareous

plates known as ossicles.

– Plates are crystals of calcium carbonate fused together.

• How they get oxygen and release carbon– Through the water

vascular system– Bumps or spines on

surface take in oxygen some of them have gill structures.

• Gonochoristic- having separate sexes.

• Male and female discharge their eggs and sperm into water and that where the eggs are fertilized.

• Develops into larva• Settles in seabeds then

changes into a miniature adults (metamorphosis)

• Click picture for more details.

• Radial nerve cord– Each radii are

equipped with radial nerve cords.

– Connected by a nerve that runs along the gut ( Esophageal nerve ring).

– Controls muscles, receives info such as touch, chemicals, and light.

• The water vascular system and hemal system derived from coelom.

• (hemal-canal and spaces.)

• Fluid moved by muscular pumping.

• The waste is passes through the mouth in some echinoderms.

• Usually passes through the water vascular system.

• Diffuses across the body surfaces to the outside.

• Digestion occurs in the stomach and digestive ceca.

• Tube feet– Pick up sand and detritus then placed in

mouth.– Mouth on the bottom.

• Starfish• Brittle star• Sea cucumber• Sand dollar• Sea lillies

• Radial symmetry- can be divided in halves at central point.– Adults stage

• Bilateral symmetry- mirror like image.– Larva stage.

• Features – Contain sensory

neurons located at the tube feet.

• Function – Control of locomotion,

respiratory, and feeding

Click to see video

• Echinoidea “sea urchins”– Body plan: rigid endoskeleton with a covering

of outward-pointing spines.– Spines include poisonous pedicellaria used

against predators.– Echinoidea are herbivore or detritus feeders.

• Holothuroidea “sea cucumber”– 900 species worldwide.– Detritivores (eat decaying material) – Usually green and bilateral symmetry and the

skin is leathery.• Astroidea “starfish”

– 1700 living species.– Movement involves hundred of tube feet.– They feed by forcing their stomachs out of their

bodies to enter prey.

• Crinodea “feather star”– Found in warm tropical seas.– Attach to corals and other surfaces.– Mouth and anus are both on top– Movement involves flapping of the arms.

• Opsiuroidea “Brittle star”– Ophiuroid means “snake-like”.– Moves by using the arms in a rowing stroke.– They are detritus feeders.

• "Animals: Aquatic; Echinoderms; Sea Lilies, Star Fishes, Urchins, Sea Cucumbers." Echinoderm. 6 Apr. 2008 <http://www.photovault.com/Link/Animals/Aquatic/oEchinoderms/AAOVolume01.html>.

• "Echinodermata." Animal Diversity Web. 2008. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. 30 Mar. 2008 <http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/index.html>.

• "Echinodermata." Larousse Encyclopedia. New York: Larousse & Co. Inc., 1969.

• http://www.virted.org/Animals/Starfish.html (didn’t give any more information)

• Miller, and Levine. Biology: the Living Science. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1998. 657-659.

• Wray, Gregory A. "Echinodermata." The Tree of Life Web Project. Dec. 1999. 30 Mar. 2008 <http://www.tolweb.org/echinodermata>.

• World of Animals: Insects and Others. Danbury: Scholastic Library, 2004. 89.