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Adam Kirschner Bio B­block Sources : Wikipedia.org, http://www.mbgnet.net/salt/animals/echinod.htm, http://animals.howstuffworks.com/marine­life/starfish­info.htm, http://www.oceanicresearch.org/education/wonders/echinoderm.html Echinoderms Patrick Star (starfish, sea urchins, and sand dollars are all echinoderms) 2000 types of starfish Sexual and asexual reproduction Only live in water Can regenerate limbs and spine Kingdom: Animalia Subkingdom: Eumetazoa Superphylum: Deuterostomia 6000 species of echinoderms Slide 1: Echinoderms are multicellular metazoa (grows and develops), tend to have 5 appendages coming out of central point but they can have up to 15, can only survive in the sea, they have an endoskeleton which means the skeleton is on the inside Slide 2: Sexual and asexual reproduction, sexually mature after 2­3 years, usually external (males and females release eggs and sperm for reproduction), also internal in certain fertilization sacks, asexual reproduction either an arm of the echinoderm splits off or larvae develop asexually when there is enough food for them to grow on their own Should be cool if you can find a picture showing the fertilization sacks or a video! Slide 3: ??? Confused about where to look for this ??? The genetic code section: It definitely has DNA, and some interesting sequenced result: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1206660/ Slide 4: As larva they swim around and grow as free­swimming creatures and grow early stages of their arms before they settle on the bottom of the ocean, Has Spiny skin (thats what it means in Greek), grows from larva to adult starfish/echinoderm, they dont have backbone but they have prickly spine, Slide 5: There are tubes that pump in water and nutrients for consumption in the echinoderms skin, they eat barnacles, snails, sea urchins, clams, mollusks, oysters and mussels, they surround their food and use tubes on their feet to pull apart snails etc and suck out its insides Slide 6: many have power of regeneration, which means they can grow back limbs if they fall off, very good against predators, It doesnt have a brain so special cells in the starfish/echinoderm sense the surroundings and react accordingly, they have sharp spines that scare away predators because they cant digest it, many are also poisonous to certain predators (sea cucumbers) Slide 7: For homeostasis echinoderms have a water vascular system that deals with gas exchange and feeding, it brings nutrients throughout the entire system, there is a central hydrocele that is attached to ambulacrals that create the tube­feet that distribute nutrients from the holes in its skin Slide 8: More recent echinoderms have endoskeletons made up of stereom which is a sponge like porous structure as well as a water vascular system that didnt exist in older echinoderms