Echinoderms (phylum Echinodermata):

1. 7k species, all marine. Important members of bottom communities from poles to tropics.
Relatively slow bottom crawlers

2. Sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and several other forms

3. Pentamerous radial symmetry (like cnidarians and comb jellies) for adults (sedentary lifestyle).
Planktonic larvae (bipinnaria)

4. bilaterally symmetrical.

5. Lack a head, no anterior or posterior end or dorsal or ventral side. Oral (mouth) and aboral sides

6. Complete digestive tract, well developed coelom, endoskeleton secreted within tissues and
covered by thin layer of ciliated tissue

7. Spines and pointed bumps give spiny appearance hence the name

8. Water vascular system, a network of water-filled canals

9. Tube feet muscular extensions of these canals, extended when filled with water, sometimes by
action of ampullae (muscular sacs) that extend inside body opposite tube feet

10. Tube feet end in a sucker and used for attachment, locomotion, and reception of chemical and
mechanical stimuli

11. In sea stars and sea urchins, water system connects to outside through madreporite (porous
plate on aboral surface)

Types of Echinoderms:

Sea stars/starfish (Asteroidea):

- distinctive echinoderm body plan

- mostly 5 arms radiate from central disk, can be up to 50

- 100s of tube feet protrude from oral surface along radiating channel on each arm (ambulacral
grooves)

- Can move in any direction (slowly) by reaching out tube feet and pulling themselves along

- Endoskeleton, interconnected CaCO3 plates -> relatively flexible framework, flexible arm

- Aboral surface covered with spines modified into minute pincer-like organ (pedicellariae), help
clean surface
 - Over 1.8k species, predators of bivalves, snails, barnacles and other attached or slow-moving
animals

Brittle stars (Ophiuroidea)

- Star shaped body architecture. 5 long flexible arms, sharply demarcated from central disk

- Swift, snake-like movements of arms used in locomotion and food capturing. tube feet lack
suckers, used in feeding

- Gonads and other internal organs contained within central disk and not extended into arms

- Most eat detritus and small animals from bottom of water. Particles collected by tube feet and
passed from foot to foot to mouth. Lack anus

- Most # of species in echinoderms, 2.1k species. Widely distributed but not always visible, hiding
under rocks corals or covering themselves with mud or sand

Sea Urchins (Echinoidea):

- Endoskeleton forms round, rigid, shell-like test with movable spines and pedicellariae

- Locomotion by movable spines, jointed to sockets in test and sucker-tipped tube feet

- Flat, radiating body plan of sea stars can be transformed into sea urchins by dropping arms to
form a sphere. 5 rows of ambulacral grooves with tube feet extend along outer surface of
sphere.

- Mouth on bottom and anus on top. Plates that make test cleaned of spines and tissue. Bands of
pores along ambulacral grooves correspond to bands of tube feet

- Graze on seaweeds and seagrasses. Ingest detritus and encrusting animals. Mouth directed
downward, intricate system of jaws and muscles (Aristotle’s Lantern) used to bite off algae and
other bits from bottom

- Common sight on rocky shores around world. Rich variety of shapes and size in tropics. 1.1k
species, not all have round tests with prominent spines

- Heart urchins and sand dollars adapted to live in soft bottoms by having flattened bodies and
short spines. Are deposit feeders that use tube feet and strands of mucus to pick up organic
particles
Sea Cucumbers (Holothuroidea):

- Superficially worm-like. Do not have spines or radial symmetry. Elongated along oral-aboral axis

- Animal lies on 1 side where 5 rows of tube feet are connected, oral and aboral sides are at the
ends

- Endoskeleton consists of microscopic calcareous spicules, often tough skin. Most have 5 rows of
tube feet extending from mouth to anus

- Most deposit feeders, tube feet around mouth modified into branched tentacles to pick up
particles from bottom or scoop sediment into mouth. Some burrow or hide and extend only
tentacles to get food from water

- Many evolved novel defensive mechanisms that compensate for lack of test and spines. Secrete
toxic substances, discharge sticky and toxic filaments through anus, sudden expulsion of the gut
or internal organs through mouth or anus (evisceration)

Crinoids (Crinoidea):

- Suspension feeders that use outstretched feathery arms to obtain food from water

- 600 living species of feather stars and sea lilies, 5k species known as fossils

- Sea lilies: restricted to deep water, attach permanently to bottom but some crawl on hard
bottoms

- Feather stars: perch and crawl in shallow and deep waters, capable of graceful swimming

- Body plan upside down brittle star with ambulacral grooves and mouth directed upward

- Some only have 5 arms but many multiple of 200 because of branching. Arms also have side
branches.

- Tiny tube feet secrete mucus to catch food particles. Food makes its way into mouth by ciliated
ambulacral grooves. They tilt body so that extended arms orient to current for efficient
suspension feeding

- Organs grouped in center of body and arms that radiate in opposite directions

Feeding and Digestion:

- Most sea stars carnivores. Feed by extending part of their stomach inside out through mouth to
envelop food. Stomach secretes digestive enzymes produced by glands that extend into arms.
 Digested food carried into glands for absorption and stomach pulled back inside. Intestine short
or missing

- Brittle stars and crinoids simple short guts, former lack anus

- Sea urchins and sea cucumbers, long and coiled gut, former adaptation for breakdown of plant
material, latter process large amounts of sediments

- All, nutrients transported in fluid that fills extensive body cavity, coelomic fluid. also transports
oxygen, lack of distinct circulatory system. 5 pairs of external gills found around mouth. Sea
stars and urchins gas exchange across small, branched projections of body wall connected at
base to coelomic activity. Sea cucumbers draw water through anus into pair of thin tubes called
respiratory trees

Nervous System and Behavior:

- Presence of nerve net reminiscent of cnidarians, coordinates movements of tube feet and spines
in absence of brain

- Righting of body after being turned over, light-sensing organs that sense home reef,
camouflaging evidence of not so simple nervous system

Reproduction and Life History:

- Separate sexes in most. Gonads, 5, 10 or more, located in body cavity and open to outside by
way of duct. Shed sperm or eggs directly into water. Gametes do not survive long in water so
many species spawn at once to ensure fertilization

- Development of fertilized egg proceeds in plankton -> ciliated larva characteristic of each group.
Larvae bilaterally symmetrical, not until metamorphosis -> radially. Some no larvae and brood
offspring in special pouches or under body

- Some sea stars, brittle stars, and sea cucumbers regularly reproduce asexually by separation of
central disk or body into two pieces. resulting halves grow into complete individuals

- Regeneration, ability to grow lost or damaged body parts. Sea stars, brittle stars, and crinoids
regenerate lost arms. In some sea stars, severed arm can grow into new individual. In most only
arms that include portions of central disk can regenerate (asexual reproduction)
 Marine Fish:
- Appeared 500 mya, probably evolved from chordates
- Chordate with backbone. Dorsal row of vertebrae made from cartilage or bone, hollow with
nerve/spinal cord inside
- Anterior side, brain protected by skull. Endoskeleton very efficient and gave them advantage to
dominate
- Most abundant form of vertebrate, half of living vertebrates, most are marine

Jawless fish (Agnatha):

- Most primitive, look like eels
- Presence of round mouth with teeth
- Feed by sucking on stuff, not real teeth, hook-like structures made of keratin
- No paired fins or scales
- 2 types: hagfish and lampreys

Hagfish:
- Live in burrows and muds and mainly live in cold waters
- Considered vultures of the sea because they look for the dead/dying to eat
- No jaws or true teeth -> no bite. Can penetrate brain of prey from any natural opening or
wound, go inside and eat it inside out
- Slimy eels, produce large amount of slime. Precise ecological function unclear (protection from
digestive enzymes, clog gills of predators…)

Lampreys:
- Mainly marine, 30 species. Also like warm waters
- Vampires of fish because they attach on fish with round mouth and tongue that has raspy teeth
- Make wounds on skin of fish and suck all body fluids, worse than a parasite

Cartilaginous Fish:
- Appearance of jaws, skeleton made of cartilage, no bones yet, light and flexible and strong
cartilage, jaws not attached to cranium and are movable
- Appearance of paired fins -> more efficient swimmers
- Scales cover body, scales anatomy same as our teeth
- became machines for predations because they were strong relative to the other evolutions
- 500 species if not more
- Sharks, rays and skates

Sharks:
- Caudal fin well developed and powerful (heterocercal, upper lobe longer than lower lobe)
- Gill slits present for breathing
 - Several rows of teeth (to the inside). 1 or 2 for biting, after a while sheds outside one and inside
ones go out
- Don’t fossilize easily but shark teeth found everywhere
- Human use: food, skin processed into leather called shagreen
- Finning: cut fin and throw back shark into ocean, sinks and dies. Fins used in soup
- Fishing: by removing 1 big predator shark -> increase population of prey all the way down

Sharks Diversity:
- Hammerheads: heads flattened, eyes and nostrils distance. Binocular vision, sense of direction
from nostrils
- Saw sharks: elongated blade-like upper jaw with teeth/scales on sides. Use their saw like zoro to
kill fish
- Thresher sharks: longest upper lobe to catch fish. Get very close to school of fish and slap them
- Whale sharks: largest of all animals, up to 18 m, peaceful, feed on plankton (filter feeders) and
do yoga
- Megalodon: 18 m normal size (bigger than whale), extinct, fed on whales
- Pygmy sharks: max 25 cm long, bioluminescent
- Great white sharks: can reach up to 8 m long, found everywhere at all depths, more common
close to coasts
- Basking sharks: bask in sun

Rays and Skates:

- Flattened dorsoventrally, demersal
- To differentiate between them, look at size
- Rays have gill skits and ventral side below mouth, skates have slits on sides
- Can reach 11 m, endangered all over the world

Diversity of Rays and Skates:

- Stingrays: Whip like tail, stinging spines with venom, defense against predator sharks
- Eagle rays: stingrays that evolved to swim in all water, can fly, stingray with venom, feed on
bottom hard-shelled animals, flattened teeth evolved to crush shell of animal
- Electrical rays: look like frying pan, 2 big organs that emit voltage (200-220 V) to sting prey
- Mantas, Devils and Eagles: 2 appendages used to direct water to mouth to filter planktons
- Skates: edible in Europe and NA, some are viperous lay eggs (rays biparous), egg cases like
leathery bags
- Ratfish (chimaeras): monsters of sea, small fish mainly found in deep water, long tails look like
body of rat, plenty of characteristics from sharks and fish, only 1 gill slit, toxic spine