Phylum
Echinodermata
Phylum Echinodermata
Living forms only
Ophiuroidea
Brittlestars
Crinoidea
Crinoids - feather stars
Echinoidea
Sea urchins
Asteroidea
starfish
Holothuridea
sea cucumbers
Concentricycloidea
Introduction
! Echinodermata are all marine,
triploblastic unsegmented
coelomates
! Phylum has 3 unique features:
! pentagonal symmetry
! calcite spicules embedded in the
skin
! Tube feet (podia)
An unhurried phylum..
! No echinoderm moves fast, apart
from a very few deep sea
holothurids which swim actively
! Crinoids are sessile, the others
crawl at a rate of mm / minute
! During one Antarctic marine survey
a starfish was tagged. A year later
the same animal was in the same
exact spot, having apparently done
nothing at all!
Anatomical basics:
! There is no cephalization
! One surface has the mouth and tube feet
(ORAL or AMBULACRAL), while the other
does not (ABORAL)
! The anus is often, but not always, aboral.
CLASSES
! The Class Asteroidea
! We’ll start with the most popular first... This class
contains all of the true Sea Stars (which we all call
Starfish despite the fact that they obviously aren't
fish) which are easily recognized as having a
relatively thick body that spreads out into arms.
PICs
The Class Ophiuroidea
! This class contains all of the Brittle and
Serpent Stars which are generally (and
incorrectly) thought to be nothing more than
skinny Sea Stars. The beautiful and unusual
basket stars are also Ophiuroids, and all
together these three make up the largest
group of all the Echinoderms. While they may
superficially look like Sea Stars at first there
are actually a few fundamental
PICs
The Class Crinoidea
! Much like the Asteroids and the Ophiuroids,
most Crinoids are free-living animals that have
a central body with numerous arms radiating
from it. Crinoids however, have far more arms
than their cousins and these arms are
exceptionally thin and are covered with tiny
branches. Their plume-like arms have also led
to another common name "Feather Star."
Diag.
The Class Echinoidea
! Unlike the Asteroids, the Ophiuroids, and the
Crinoids, Echinoids have no arms. These are
better known as the Sea Urchins, Sea Biscuits,
and Sand Dollars. ,
Diag
The Class Holothuroidea
! The Holothuroids, commonly known as Sea
Cucumbers. Unlike the Stars and Lilies these
have no arms. They have a number of highly-
branched fleshy tentacles that can be extended
from their oral end. They crawl on their sides, too.
Holothuroids have their anus at one end and
mouth at the other. They are stretched out from
end to end, from the mouth to anus rather than
from side to side from arm tip to arm tip. Thus, in
a sense they really are crawling on their sides
when they move around.
Diag
Functional groups 1:
nerves
! Echinoderms have a diffuse
nervous system with no “brain”
! There is a 5-radial circum-oral
nerve ring, and a superficial net
running close to ectoderm
Hydraulics
! These are far more complex than
the nervous system!
! Main hydraulic systems are
derived from the coelom, although
separate sections of the coelom
also surround viscera
! The podia are operated by a
hydraulic system called the water-
vascular system
5-radial layout
! Many organ systems in the
echinoderms follow the same basic
structure as the water-vascular and
nervous systems: a 5-radial circum-
oral ring
! These rings give rise to 5 radial
branches (canals in the case of the
WVS)
! A few asteroids have 7, 10, 11 arms -
in which case 7,10, 11 radial branches
Hydraulics, contd.
! Each radial canal of the WVS
supplies water to tube feet, each
with its ampulla
! There is one asymmetric
element: a single tube (the
“stone canal”) running from the
oral WVS ring to the outside via
the madreporite
THE WATER VASCULAR
SYSTERM
! Ehinoderms also share a unique body system
called the water-vascular system, which no other
group of animals possess. This is a complex
system of muscles, canals, pouches, bladders,
tubes, and suckers that allow Echinoderms to
move around and to eat. You can't see it on the
inside of an Echinoderm without opening it.
Through coordinated movement of these tube
feet, the owner can move about surprisingly
quickly.
WVS Cont.
! They can also grab hold of a seemingly
impenetrable clam and open its shell wide
enough to make a meal of it, or climb right up the
side of your aquarium. Likewise, other
Echinoderms use their tube-feet, or similar
extensions of the water-vascular system to
capture planktonic foods, or to burrow through
substrates, etc. Again, it doesn't matter what they
look like, they all have a W. V. S.
Surface features
! Echinoderm skin has several
distinctive sets of organs
protruding from their skin:
! Tube feet (podia)
! Spines
! Pedicillaria
Tube feet..
! Podia are not scattered haphazardly
over the body surface
! They lie in 10 rows (5 pairs), the
ambulacral grooves
! Each tube foot + its ampulla is isolated
from the WVS by a valve
! Tube feet vary - starfish have muscular
suction cups, other forms have sticky
tips.
! Crinoids are different - primitive
Tube feet..
! Originally began as outgrowths of
the WVS. In crinoids and
ophiuroids these remain essentially
as tentacles.
! In other radiations, notably
asteroids, these have evolved a
highly specialised suction cup used
for locomotion and prey capture.
Tube feet..
! Have retractor muscles and can
bend, but no extensors
! To extend, muscles around the
ampulla contract
! Each podium has a nervous arc to
its branch of the hyponeural
system
Role of WVS
! Hydraulics
! Respiration - O2 is exchanged
between ampulla and perivisceral
coelomic fluid
! Probably (?) this was the ancestral
function of the WVS, with tubes +
podia lining arms to exploit ciliary
current already used in food
collection
THE WVS - Diag
Pedicillaria
! …Are defensive organs, assumed
to protect against encrusting
organisms
! Are active, independent local
effector units able to inject toxins
on contact
Madreporite
! Allows pressure equalization and
top up water supply to the WVS
! Is absent in crinoids
Gonads
! Lie as 10 (2N) paired structures
at the base of ambulacral
grooves.
! Sexes are separate, and
discharge gametes into the sea
water
! Gonads can be large - echinoid
gonads almost fill the test, and
can be eaten as a delicacy.
Phylum Echinodermata
Living forms only
Ophiuroidea
Brittlestars
Crinoidea
Crinoids - feather stars
Echinoidea
Sea urchins
Asteroidea
starfish
Holothuridea
sea cucumbers
Concentricycloidea
Sadly...
! Of the 13 classes of echinoderms
known, 7 are extinct.
! Echinoderms were dominant forms
in Carboniferous seas, but have
suffered a long-term decline in
phyletic richness
Crinoidea
! Feather stars & Sea lilies
! Abyssal filter feeders
! 5000 fossil spp, 620 living
Crinoidea
! Body made of ossicles
! 10 arms have podia (no ampullae)
feeding particles to the mouth.
! Arms can move
! Mouth and anus are both on oral
side (!)
Asteroidea
! “Starfish”
! Active predators
! feed on bivalves
! use suction cups to pull open the
shells with forces of up to 5kg
! The stomach is eversible, and can be
partially inserted inside prey’s shell
(enzymes but no toxins)
Echinoidea
! Recipe: take a starfish and roll
its 5 arms together into a ball,
then fuse and calcify with an
external armor
! The armor is called the test
! Very small aboral surface
Echinoidea
! Herbivores, preferring macro-algae
! They can be highly effective grazers,
creating “urchin barrens” devoid of
algae
! The mouthparts are unique, known as
Aristotle’s Lantern.
! 5 continually growing chisel teeth
! Each tooth with 8 supporting skeletal
pieces
Irregulars
! All are sand burrowing
! Heart urchin Echinocardium has no
lantern;
! Sand-dollars (Clypeaster) are more
flattened with a lantern
Noli tangere
! Many echinoids have wickedly
sharp spines, which break off in
your skin.
! Only a few fish, trigger fish
attack long-spined species
! Spines are under muscular
control, and can be used to
move
Noli tangere
! Very few echinoids are lethal to
touch - their pedicillaria inject a
neurotoxin
! Toxopneustes is feared by pearl
divers
Ophiuridae - brittle stars
! Have arms sharply demarcated
from the body disc.
! The internal structure of the arms
involves interlocking internal
ossicles, confusingly called
vertebrae
! Are primarily detrital or filter
feeders, raising their arms in a
current to capture particulates
Holothuridae- Sea
Cucumbers
! They have no calcitic skeleton, except
for spicules embedded in a leathery skin
! Most are immobile, and lie on the sea
bed rolling back and forth with the swell.
Some have limited mobility using their
tube feet.
! Despite retaining 5-radiate anatomy,
they have re-evolved bilateral symmetry
along their long axis (the oral-aboral)
Holothuridae
! They mainly feed on detritus
! Oxygen exchange is performed
using gills inside their anus
! They have 2 odd defensive
strategies:
! Squirting a sticky goo
! Voiding their entire intestines
IA
! WRITE AN ESSAY ON THE WATER VASCULAER
SYSTEM OF THE ECHINODERMS
