Phylum ECHINODERMATA: Overview
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a) perhaps the most bizarre of living animal phyla
b) five main living classes: Crinoidea (feather stars, sea lilies), Asteroidea (starfish), Ophiuroidea (brittle stars), Echinoidea (sea urchins, sand dollars), Holothuroidea (sea cucumbers)
a) 'oral' & 'aboral' are more useful terms than 'anterior' & 'posterior'
b) the oral surface is oriented up in attached forms and down in most mobile forms
a) originate intracellularly (endoskeleton) & form as a single crystal
b) they take a remarkable variety of shapes and sizes
c) they may: form a flexible strutwork (asteroids), form an interlocking chain of elements (ophiuroid & crinoid arms), fuse into a rigid test (echinoids), be small and isolated (holothuroids)
d) may form the jaws of pedicellaria (some asteroids & echinoids)
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a) the primary original function was feeding; locomotion arose later
b) connects to the outside via a porous plate (madreporite)
c) Polian vesicles of the ring canal help maintain internal pressure
d) radial canals (5) extend down ambulacral grooves and may be open (crinoids, asteroids) or enclosed (other classes)
e) lateral canals lead to tube feet that may or may not bear suckers
f) tube feet are extended via hydrostatic pressure (via ampullae in many groups) and retracted or bent via longitudinal muscles
a) the water-vascular system arises from the fused axo-hydrocoel
b) the perivisceral coelom arises from the somatocoel
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Copyright © 1997 by A. Richard Palmer. All rights reserved.(revised April 2, 1997)