Echinodermata Research Paper

The Earthworm is a crucial component of the environment due to their interactions with soil which then, in turn, provides benefits to other living organisms such as their burrowing behavior, which allows nutrients, air, and water to delve deeper into the soil. After soil is swallowed by the pharynx, the food matter is sent through the esophagus and into the crop, where the soil is stored until it interacts with the gizzard. The main function of the gizzard to grind the soils so that it can enter the intestine, where gland cells within release fluid to aid in the process. When organic matter is finally excreted from the intestine to the anus through the worm through the process of casting, more nutrients are introduce into the soil that benefit plant life. The earthworm also has a brain located behind its pharynx, called the cerebral ganglia, that is crucial for movement. The

They are dioecious animals that use external fertilization for reproduction, while Pterobranchia uses mostly asexual reproduction by budding. Their feeding patterns vary from each class, and feeding appendages help them obtain the food they need. They have sense organs such as photoreceptors and a single preoral ciliary organ which is in front of the mouth located at the ventral side of the proboscis of the animal (Dobbs. 1988). The proboscis is important for them because that is where all of the neurosensory cells reside (Barrington. 1965). Therefore, this phylum consists of about 120 species that are mostly known and some not except the main two classes introduced. New species of the phylum hemichordata are yet to

Moon Jellyfish are in the “Animalia Kingdom, Phylum Cnidarian, Class Scyphozoan, Order Semaeostomeae, Family Ulmaridae, and Genus Aurelia” ( Myers, 2016 ; Espinosa, ; 2016 ; Parr, 2016 ; Jones, 2026 ; Hammond, 2016 ; Dewey, 2016). The morphological description of Cnidarians are corals, sea anemones, jellyfish and hydroids. These cnidarians form a diverse phylum that contains ~9000 species, which live in aquatic (predominantly marine) environments. The phylum-defining trait of Cnidaria is the stinging cell, the nematocyte an extrusive organelle used for predation, adhesion and defense (Holstein, 1981; Lengfeld et al., 2009; Tardent and Holstein, 1982) (Steele and Technau; 2011). Also, this phylum, Cnidarians, are divided into two groups, “Anthozoa (sea anemones, corals and sea pens), which live as

Beginning about 1850 Ma, we find acritarchs, spherical microfossils with thick and complex organic walls. They are probably dinoflagellates that spent most of their life floating in the plankton.

Echinoderms such as starfish, sea cucumbers, and urchins are identified by their symmetry and central mouth. This species is found decorating the coral reefs by their variety of color and sizes. Because some of these animals like to burrow in the sand, they can supply oxygen to some of the depths in the ocean. Echinoderms are a staple food in many sea animals diet.

They have gills covered by an operculum that increases respiratory efficiency by creating negative pressure that both draws and pushes water across the gills. They have a gas-filled pouch for gas exchange in low-oxygen environments that contributes to buoyancy. A few species use diffusion across their skin.

True starfish are classified in the Asteroidea, a group of echinoderms. True starfish have no sharp demarcation between arms and central body, and they move using tube feet rather than wriggling movements of the whole arms. True starfish and ophiuroids shared a common ancestor in the Ordovician. Most starfish are predators, feeding on sessile or slow-moving prey such as mollusks and barnacles. (example: crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster specializes on corals, and may do considerable damage to coral reefs.) Many, but not all, starfish are able to turn a portion of their stomachs out through the mouth, and thus digest food outside of the body.

In the Pacific Northwest on the Eastern side of the Olympic mountain range there can be found an animal that you would normally think would be found in the waters of the oceans, but here they are in trees, this is where you can find the Tree Octopus. They can be found on the Northwest side of the United States in on the Eastern side of the Olympic mountain range, adjacent from the Hood Canal. They live in this area because of the moistness of the trees and how their skin is they are able to easily adapt to the conditions of the rainforest. They also have the largest brain to body ratio compared to any mollusk of its kind (Zapato).

Echinoderms, named for their spiny surfaces, include an array of 70000 species which are all mostly sessile marine mammals, that lack overall body segments (Myers, n.d.). Nonetheless, typically ranging from 1cm-2m, they are known to have an extoskelton constructed from hard plates just beneath the skin, and possess a water vascular system- which their tube feet are connected to (Myers, n.d.). Additionally, they are known to show bilateral symmetry as larvae, but then after they metamorphose, feature a strong appearance of radial symmetry (Myers, n.d.).

Brachiopods were shelled animals that lived in the seas of ancient times and is commonly found in Paleozoic marine layer of the Canyon. They are made up of 2 asymmetrical shells called “valves”. One valve is longer that the other one. Bryozoans are polyp like and tiny. They form colonies that resemble corals. They form lacy structure on hard surfaces and stick structures into the water column. Crinoids resemble plant but were actually animals that looked like sea stars on a stick. They had root like structure to collect food, circulate fluid and even act like feet at times to move across ocean floor.Sponges are colony of single cells where some cells catch food with Cilia, others wander through and distribute food and some engineer the structural

There are two biological impacts during handling and storage of crustaceans such as oxygen and temperature. Crustaceans need oxygen to life. Besides, crustaceans have the ability to survive for some time out of water. However, when in air the animals may appear to be blowing bubbles, which they use to keep their gills moist and allow some exchange of oxygen. Meanwhile, this leads to a built up of waste products in the blood and gill chamber, which are released rapidly when the animal is returned to seawater. Storing the crustacean out of water will dry out the gills causing damage. It will prevent animals from recovering when re-immersed and this can result in high mortality. Crustaceans also developed a short term capability to cope with water that has low concentrations of dissolved oxygen. However, low levels of dissolved oxygen leads

Although there are many fascinating animals that can call the Intertidal Zone home, the starfish, or sea star, is one that really stands out. To begin, National Geographic reports, “most sea stars also have the remarkable ability to consume prey outside their bodies. Using tiny, suction-cupped tube feet, they pry open clams or oysters, and their sack-like cardiac stomach emerges from their mouth and oozes inside the shell. Swimming in the ocean, the stomach then envelops the prey to digest it, and finally withdraws back into the body.” Because the starfish needs many ways to eat while in the Intertidal Zone, this is one example of a way that they can find food, because food is hard to find in the

Cambrian explosion is one of the great evolutionary events of animals. Before this event (635 to 541 Mya), most animals called Ediacaran fauna were almost flat and soft bodies (ref). However, in early Cambrian (around 550 Mya), most of modern phyla of animals have evolved with skeletal tissues were remain as fossils (ref). This direct evidence suggested that the mechanisms of skeletogenesis have evolved in the near base of Bilateria in the earliest Cambrian period, and the Cambrian explosion might have been due, partly, to the acquisition of this novel body plan. The common ancestors of Ecdysozoa or Lophotrochozoa have evolved the external hard tissues, exoskeleton, and became diversified morphological and mineral structures in each phylum

The plates that compose brittle starfish, ophiuroids and echinoderms is calcite along with other organics. Though each plate is a single crystal of calcite, it doesn't take a typical crystalline form. Below is a picture of the tooth socket, notice the holes.

The kingdom Animalia breaks down to two subkingdoms, Parazoa and Eumetazoa. Parazoa include organisms, such as sponges, who most members lack symmetry, but are multicellular to help circulate water and reproduce. Eumetazoa separates from Parazoa by symmetry and definite shape therefore, anything that branches off from Eumetazoa consist of these characteristics. Eumetazoa, or “true animals”, further divides among protostomes and deuterostomes (Telford, 2009). Protostomes and deuterostomes differentiate by the embryonic development and how the zygote goes through mitotic divisions, known as cleavage, and so on (Raven et al., 2014).