Practical 3: Echinodermata

o Pentaradial symmetry in adults

o Spiny endoskeleton of calcareous plates

o Fluid-filled canals derived from coelom (water vascular system)

o Include sea stars, urchins, sea cucumbers, brittle stars, feather stars and some
others.

o Share common features including a water vascular system, tube feet and an
endoskeleton which gives the animals their spiny "skin".

o Many echinoderms are predators of other animals (sea stars and urchins),
but some are filter feeders (e.g. feather stars).

o One of the major threats to the health of Australia's tropical reefs is an

echinoderm: the crown of thorns starfish.

Class Asteroidea

 Mouth on underside or oral surface

 Usually five arms, though some have more.
 Pedicellariae: pincer-like structures 

Aboral features of the sea star Parvulastra exigua.

 Radial symmetry and five arms
 Species is shaped more like a cushion than a star and the arms are quite
short. They are covered in spines and papulae, short projections of the body wall
that emerge between adjacent ossicles and have a respiratory function. 
 The madreporite off-centre on the central disc, a sieve-like plate used to filter
water into the water vascular system. 
 In the centre of the aboral side is the anus.
Oral-side features.
 The mouth on the oral side of the central disc, surrounded by a
tough peristominal membrane and a circle of spines protecting the mouth.
 Along the arms are tube feet, arranged in rows either side of the
five ambulacral grooves.
 Moveable spines along the arm form a protective cover over the feet when they
are retracted. 

Class Echinoidea

 No arms
  Body spherical or flattened along oral-aboral axis
 Pedicellariae: pincer-like structures
 Aristotle’s lantern jaw with five pointed teeth (urchins only) 

The body is covered in rigid test covered in spines.

The test is comprised of closely fitting skeletal plates. 
The pentamerous radial symmetry evident in the
alternating ambulacral and interambulacral plates. 
At the aboral pole is the anal opening; this is most easily observed in a cleaned dried
test of urchins. Beside the anal opening is the smaller gonopore, the opening for
a gonoduct.

Class Holothuroidea

 no arms
 body elongated, roughly cylindrical, with tube feet
 branched tentacles surrounding mouth
 body wall soft with embedded calcareous ossicles
 interior madreporite

Class Opiuroidea

 Five to seven long spindle-like arms

 Arms readily shed and regrown
 No anus
 Tube feet lack suckers 
 Efficient movement via tube feet
 Brittle stars are effective predators

Class Crinoidea

 From five to hundreds of feather-like arms

 Arms have pinnules (side-branches)
 Both mouth and anus point upwards, anus higher on anal cone attach to
substratum via hook-like cirri or long stalk