Chapter 27
27.1 Echinoderm
Characteristics
Learning Objectives State the characteristics
common to echinoderms.
Analyze the water-vascular
system and tube feet
adaptations of echinoderms.
Distinguish the classes of
echinoderms from each other.
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Complete the chart
with your prior
knowledge
Echinoderms are Deuterostomes
• Echinoderms are
deuterostomes – a major
transition in the phylogeny of
animals.
• The approximately 6000
living species of echinoderms
are marine animals.
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Whatisanechinoderm?
Body Structure • Characterized by spiny
endoskeleton
• The endoskeleton consists of
calcium carbonate plates
covered by a thin layer of skin.
• The skin contains pedicellariae,
small pincers that aid in
catching food and in removing
foreign materials from the skin.
• Echinoderms have radial
symmetry as adults.
• Larvae have bilateral symmetry.
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• The water-vascular system is a system
Water-vascular of fluid-filled, closed tubes that work
system together to enable echinoderms to move
and get food.
• The opening to the water-vascular
system is called the madreporite,
which draws water into the body.
• Water moves through a series of
canals to the tube feet – tubes with
suction-cuplike structures at the end,
which echinoderms use for
movement, food collection, and
respiration.
• At the opposite end of the tube foot
is a muscular sac called the ampulla,
which expands and contracts to
extend the tube foot.
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Sequence
Echinoderms have a variety of feeding
Feeding and digestion strategies beyond tube feet.
Sea lilies and
feather stars
extend their arms
to trap food.
Brittle stars trap
Sea stars can push organic matter in
their stomachs out mucus on their arms.
of their mouths and
coating their prey
in digestive
enzymes.
Sea urchins use
teethlike plates to
scrape algae off
rocks.
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Respiration, circulation, and excretion
• Echinoderms use tube feet
for respiration.
• Oxygen diffuses from the
water through the thin
membranes of the tube feet.
• Circulation takes place in
the body coelom and the
water-vascular system.
• Excretion occurs by
diffusion through thin body
membranes.
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Response to stimuli
• Have both sensory and
motor neurons
• Sensory neurons respond to
touch, chemicals dissolved
in the water, water currents,
and light.
• Many echinoderms can also
sense the direction of
gravity.
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Movement • The structure of the
endoskeleton is important for
determining the type of
movement an echinoderm
can undertake.
• Swimming
• Crawling
• Burrowing
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Answer from your own knowledge of echinoderms or search
Reproduction and development
• Most echinoderms
reproduce sexually.
• Echinoderms can
regenerate lost body
parts.
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Echinoderm Diversity
• Living classes of echinoderms
include:
• Asteroidea, the sea stars
• Ophiuroidea, the brittle stars
• Echinoidea, the sea urchins
• Crinoidea, the sea lilies and
feather stars
• Holothuroidea, the sea
cucumbers
• Concentricycloidea, the sea
daisies
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Sea stars • Five arms arranged
around a central disk
• Found in shallow
coastal waters and
tide pools
• Important marine
predator
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Brittle stars
• Arms are thin and very
flexible, without suckers
on tube feet.
• Move by rowing
themselves quickly over
the bottom rocks and
sediments
• Feed on small particles
suspended in the water
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Sea urchins and sand dollars
• Sea urchins burrow into
rocky areas.
• Can be herbivorous
grazers or predators.
• Sand dollars can be
found in shallow water
burrowing into the sand.
• Filter organic particles.
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Sea lilies and feather stars
• Sessile for part of their
lives.
• Can detach themselves
and move elsewhere
• Capture food by extending
their tube feet and arms
into the water where they
catch suspended organic
materials
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• Some tube feet are modified to
Sea cucumbers
form tentacles to trap
suspended food particles.
• Only echinoderm to have
respiratory organs in the form
of respiratory trees, which also
function in excretion
• When threatened, it can cast
out some of its internal organs
through its anus.
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Sea daisies
• Less than 1 cm in
diameter
• Disc-shaped with no
arms
• Tube feet are located
around the edge of the
disc
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Ecology of Echinoderms
Echinoderm benefits
• Sea cucumbers and sea
urchins are sources of food.
• Important in ecosystem
balances, especially in
controlling algal growth.
• Bioturbators – stir up
sediments on the ocean floor,
suspending nutrients into the
water column
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Ecology of Echinoderms
Echinoderm harm
• When populations grow
overly large, sea stars or
sea urchins can disrupt
ecosystems
• Can destroy habitats such
as coral reefs and kelp
forests
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Complete the chart with the
information you learned
Short Research
Give an example of regeneration
in humans. Then give an example
of regeneration in echinoderms
Think that is beyond the capability of
humans.
and Humans regenerate tissues to replace shed
connect skin cells and repair broken bones. Humans
cannot regenerate whole body parts like
echinoderms can.