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Echinodermata Bruguière, 1791 [ex Klein, 1734]
EOL Text
Since they are almost exclusively marine species, echinoderms are probably osmoconformers, with little ionic regulation.
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| Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2013, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
| Source | http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Echinodermata/ |
Echinodermata is prey of:
Pycnopodia
Merluccius bilinearis
Urophycis tenuis
Gadidae
Melanogrammus aeglefinus
Hemitripterus americanus
Myoxocephalus octodecemspinosus
Leucoraja erinacea
Leucoraja ocellata
Amblyraja radiata
Macrozoarces americanus
Anarhichas
Tautogolabrus adspersus
Pleuronectes americanus
Hippoglossoides platessoides
Mustelus canis
Lophius americanus
Caretta caretta
Corvus caurinus
Enhydra lutris
Based on studies in:
USA: Washington, Cape Flattery (Littoral, Rocky shore)
USA, Northeastern US contintental shelf (Coastal)
This list may not be complete but is based on published studies.
- R. T. Paine, Food webs: linkage, interaction strength and community infrastructure, J. Anim. Ecol. 49:667-685, from p. 670 (1980).
- Link J (2002) Does food web theory work for marine ecosystems? Mar Ecol Prog Ser 230:19
- Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 16, 2011 at http://animaldiversity.org. http://www.animaldiversity.org
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| Rights holder/Author | Cynthia Sims Parr, Joel Sachs, SPIRE |
| Source | http://spire.umbc.edu/fwc/ |
Echinodermata preys on:
detritus
benthic macrofauna
Bivalvia
algae
Ostreoida
Based on studies in:
USA: Rhode Island (Coastal)
USA: Alaska, Torch Bay (Littoral, Rocky shore)
USA: Washington, Cape Flattery (Littoral, Rocky shore)
USA, Northeastern US contintental shelf (Coastal)
This list may not be complete but is based on published studies.
- J. N. Kremer and S. W. Nixon, A Coastal Marine Ecosystem: Simulation and Analysis, Vol. 24 of Ecol. Studies (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1978), from p. 12.
- R. T. Paine, Food webs: linkage, interaction strength and community infrastructure, J. Anim. Ecol. 49:667-685, from p. 670 (1980).
- Link J (2002) Does food web theory work for marine ecosystems? Mar Ecol Prog Ser 230:19
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | Cynthia Sims Parr, Joel Sachs, SPIRE |
| Source | http://spire.umbc.edu/fwc/ |
The non-centralized nervous system allows echinoderms to sense their environment from all sides. Adult pheromones may attract larvae, which tend to settle near conspecific adults. Metamorphosis in some species is triggered by adult pheromones.
Communication Channels: chemical
Other Communication Modes: pheromones
Perception Channels: tactile ; chemical
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| Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2013, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
| Source | http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Echinodermata/ |
Echinoderms are deuterostomes. The larvae, which are planktotrophic or lecithotrophic, have 3-part paired coeloms. Embryonic coelomic structures have specific fates as the bilaterally symmetrical larvae metamorphose into radially symmetric adults. Adult pheromones may attract larvae, which tend to settle near conspecific adults. Metamorphosis in some species is triggered by adult pheromones.
Development - Life Cycle: metamorphosis
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| Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2013, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
| Source | http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Echinodermata/ |
Mating System: polygynandrous (promiscuous)
Echinoderms are mainly gonochoristic (having separate sexes), with exceptions among the asteroids, holothurians and ophuroids. Holothurians possess a single gonad, crinoids lack distinct gonads, while asteroids and echinoids have multiple gonads. Echinoderm reproductive strategies vary from free spawning and indirect development to brooding and direct development. Spawning is probably a noctural event.
Key Reproductive Features: seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); simultaneous hermaphrodite; sequential hermaphrodite; sexual ; fertilization (External ); oviparous
Parental investment ranges from no care after the release of eggs for free spawning to brooding the young. Brooding is found in polar and boreal echinoderms and some deep sea echinoderms, where environments are more difficult for the larvae.
Parental Investment: pre-fertilization (Provisioning); pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female)
- Brusca, R., G. Brusca. 2003. Invertebrates. Sunderland, Massachusetts: Sinauer Associates, Inc..
- Barnes, R. 1987. Invertebrate Zoology. Orlando, Florida: Dryden Press.
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2013, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
| Source | http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Echinodermata/ |
Pressure allows movement: echinoderms
Legs and tubes in echinoderms such as starfish allow movement and feeding by use of hydrostatic pressure.
"Their [echinoderms'] bodies work by unique exploitation of hydrostatic principles. Feet, each a thin tube ending in a sucker and kept firm by the pressure of water within, wave and curl in rows along the arms. The water for this system circulates quite separately from that in the body cavity. It is drawn through a pore into a channel surrounding the mouth and circulated throughout the body and into the myriads of tube feet. When a drifting particle of food touches an arm, tube feet fasten on to it and pass it on from one to another until it reaches the gutter that runs down the upper surface of the arm to the mouth at the centre." (Attenborough 1979:49)
Learn more about this functional adaptation.
- Attenborough, David. 1979. Life on Earth. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company. 319 p.
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| Rights holder/Author | (c) 2008-2009 The Biomimicry Institute |
| Source | http://www.asknature.org/strategy/fc5f8378fa41be7e812bb6d4bf8906ac |
Echinoderms are invertebrate marine animals that are found in all oceans of the world and at all depths. There are no echinoderms in freshwater environments.
Members of the Phylum Echinodermata include many easily recognizable creatures such as sea stars (or starfish), brittle stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and sea lilies. All of these animals are radially or biradially symmetric, and they fill a variety of niches in marine environments as particle feeders, browsers, scavengers, and predators.
Tube feet attach in marine environment: echinoderms
The tube feet of echinoderms attach to surfaces via suction adhesion.
"Besides mollusks, echinoderm tube feet make use of suction adhesion, as do a wide variety of other aquatic systems--either as the only attachment mechanism or in combination with others. Among terrestrial systems one thinks first of wet ones--frogs for instance. But the mechanism finds use even in arboreal mammals." (Vogel 2003:427)
Learn more about this functional adaptation.
- Steven Vogel. 2003. Comparative Biomechanics: Life's Physical World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 580 p.
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | (c) 2008-2009 The Biomimicry Institute |
| Source | http://www.asknature.org/strategy/e21044aba85bbecb2673afd5b96eeeee |
Link to the "Echinodermata" article on Wikipedia.
| License | http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | Frédéric Ducarme, Frédéric Ducarme |
| Source | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinoderm |