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Exploring Echinoderms: Fascinating Sea Creatures of the Ocean Floor

Delve into the world of Echinoderms, including Sea Stars, Sea Urchins, and other intriguing "spiny-skinned" animals residing on the ocean floor. Learn about their unique body characteristics, movement mechanisms, feeding habits, and reproductive processes. Discover how these fascinating creatures adapt to their environment and interact with their surroundings. Unearth the wonders of Echinoderms and their pivotal role in marine ecosystems.

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Exploring Echinoderms: Fascinating Sea Creatures of the Ocean Floor

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  1. Phylum ECHINODERMATA The Echinoderms – Sea Stars, Sea Urchins and other “Spiny Skinned” Animals of the Ocean Floor

  2. Body Characteristics • Body Symmetry: Radial • Cell Organization: Cells to tissues to organs to organ systems • Reproduction: Sexual • Body Development: zygotes grow into larva which undergoes COMPLETE METAMORPHOSIS to form the adult.

  3. Just the Facts… • No backbone • Name literally means “spiny-skinned” • There skeleton pokes through their skin! • Four major classes • Sea stars • Brittle stars • Sea urchins • Sea cucumbers • Spikes arranged in multiples of five

  4. Just the facts… • Live on the ocean floor • Endoskeleton – spiny internal skeleton made of plates that contain calcium • No anterior end to hold sense organs • Adapted to sense food and mates from any direction

  5. How Do Echinoderms Move? • Water Vascular System • Consists of fluid-filled tubes • The tubes contract squeezing water into structures called tube feet

  6. How Do Echinoderms Move? • The tube feet are sticky and when filled with water they act like tiny suction cups • The stickiness allows the echinoderm to grip surfaces and move along the ocean floor.

  7. What Do Echinoderms Eat? • Mollusks, crabs, and other echinoderms • A sea star will grasp the food with five arms, suctions the shell open, forces its stomach out through its mouth and in between the shell. • Digestive chemicals break down the prey and the sea star suctions the food into its body. • *Sea Cucumbers are filter feeders*

  8. How do Echinoderms Reproduce • Are either male or female • Eggs are fertilized in the water and develop into larva, the larva metamorphosize into adults • Can re-grow lost body parts through REGENERATION

  9. Echinoderm Examples

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