Echinoderms and Chordata Intro
RELEVANT SECTIONS OF TEXT:
 Pg 707-709, 712-716
Objectives and Study Questions:
1. What are the shared characteristics of all organism within clade deuterostoma?
2. What are the characteristics of phylum Echinodermata?
3. Are there any freshwater Echinoderms?
4. What are ossicles? What are they made of?
5. What is the water vascular system and what is/are its function(s).
6. What kind of digestive tract do echinoderms have?
7. How do they perform gas exchange?
8. Why are Echniderms placed in Bilateria?
9. Describe the symmetry of an adult echinoderm.
10. Are echinoderms typically hermaphroditic or dioecious? Is fertilization typically external or
internal?
11. What class of echinoderms do sea stars belong to?
12. Describe how tube feet and the water vascular system work together to allow sea stars (and
other echindoerms to move).
13. How to sea stars feed?
14. What structures do sea stars use for gas exchange
15. What are pedicellaria and what are their function(s)?
16. Describe the route that water would take through the water vascular system of a sea star from
the madreporite to a tube foot.
17. What are the functions of the digestive gland in sea stars
18. Do sea stars have a brain?
19. What echinoderm class to brittle stars belong to?
20. How is the body and movement of a brittle star different than that of a sea star?
21. What class are sea urchins and sand dollars in?
22. Describe the body of a typical sea urchin. How is it different than the body of a sea star?
23. What echinoderm class includes sea lilies and feather stars?
24. How do sea lilies and feather stars feed?
25. What echinoderm class are sea cucumbers in?
26. How are sea cucumbers different from the other echinoderm classes?
27. What echinoderm class has its mouth facing upward?
28. What echinoderm class(es) do not have arms?
29. What echinoderm class has a soft body?
30. What echinoderm class has its ossicles fused into a solid test?
31. Describe the characteristics that chordates have in common with other members of eumatazoa,
bilateria, and dueterostomata.
32. What are the 4 derived characteristics of chordate (shared, defining chordate characteristics.
33. How is the nerve cord of chordates different than non-chordates?
34. What is the function of the notochord.
35. What are pharyngeal slits or cleft? What can then develop into as the organism develops?
36. What is the only group of chordates to have all 4 derived traits of chordates in the adult stage?
37. Describe how lancelets (cephalochordates) feed.
38. What are myotomes?
39. How do lancelets perform gas exchange? What kind of circulatory system?
40. In what stage of life to Urochordates show the 4 chordate features? How long does this stage of
life last?
41. Describe the body plan of adult Urochordates and how they feed.
42. What kind of symmetry do Urochordates have?