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An echinoderm (/ ɪ ˈ k aɪ n ə ˌ d ɜːr m, ˈ ɛ k ə-/) [2] is any animal of the phylum Echinodermata (/ ɪ ˌ k aɪ n oʊ ˈ d ɜːr m ə t ə /), which includes starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars and sea cucumbers, as well as the sessile sea lilies or "stone lilies". [3]
The highly modified nervous system of echinoderms obscures much about their ancestry, but several facts suggest that all present deuterostomes evolved from a common ancestor that had pharyngeal gill slits, a hollow nerve cord, circular and longitudinal muscles and a segmented body.
The name comes from the Greek "echinos" (ἐχῖνος) meaning a hedgehog or sea-urchin [5] and "derma" (δέρμα) meaning skin, [6] referring to the spiny cap surface. The noun "derma" is neuter and therefore if the species name is an adjective, it needs to take the neuter ending (example: Echinoderma asperum ).
This list of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names is intended to help those unfamiliar with classical languages to understand and remember the scientific names of organisms. The binomial nomenclature used for animals and plants is largely derived from Latin and Greek words, as are some of the names used for higher taxa , such ...
[6] [7] The name is derived from the Old French herichun, from Latin ericius ('hedgehog'). [8] Like other echinoderms, sea urchin early larvae have bilateral symmetry, [9] but they develop five-fold symmetry as they mature. This is most apparent in the "regular" sea urchins, which have roughly spherical bodies with five equally sized parts ...
Brittle stars, serpent stars, or ophiuroids (from Latin ophiurus 'brittle star'; from Ancient Greek ὄφις (óphis) 'serpent' and οὐρά (ourá) 'tail'; referring to the serpent-like arms of the brittle star) are echinoderms in the class Ophiuroidea, closely related to starfish. They crawl across the sea floor using their flexible arms ...
Echinoderms tube feet (including sea cucumbers) can be seen aligned along the side of their axes. While echinoderms are invertebrates, meaning they do not have a spine, they do all have an endoskeleton that is secreted by the mesenchyme. This endoskeleton is composed of plates called ossicles.
The class Asteroidea belongs to the phylum Echinodermata. As well as the starfish, the echinoderms include sea urchins, sand dollars, brittle and basket stars, sea cucumbers and crinoids. The larvae of echinoderms have bilateral symmetry, but during metamorphosis this is replaced with radial symmetry, typically pentameric. [12]