Echinoderms Research Paper

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Echinoderms are a part of kingdom animalia. There are many different types of echinoderms. Some examples include: sea stars, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea cucumbers. All of these echinoderms are living.These animals live in marine environments, and there are no echinoderms that live on land. Most of these animals are either non-motile (sessile) or they move in an extremely slow manner. Echinoderms have a endoskeleton that is covered by a very thin layer of epidermis. The endoskeleton is composed of calcareous plates which have spines on them. The echinoderms are all radially symmetrical. This means that they can be cut in half in any direction and still have a mirror image. Aside from chordates, these animals are the only deuterostomes. A deuterostome has two separate openings for a mouth and an anus. They are unique because the first embryonic opening in echinoderms becomes the anus, and the second embryonic becomes the mouth. Male and female echinoderms are …show more content…
They are composed of a light-weight material called stereom. Stereom is very porous like that of a sponge and comprised of calcium carbonate. Taphonomy is the study of how organisms become fossils. Taphonomists are intrigued due to the uniqueness of the organisms. Echinoderms are compared to plants, crustaceans, and vertebrates, but are still not classed into one for fossilization. The main reason behind this is because they naturally separate in the ocean, which makes getting a whole organisms fossilized harder. They are dated back with fossilization to the Age of the Dinosaurs. The conditions for an Echinoderm to become fossilized need to pretty close to perfect. Only crinoids and echinoids have been really studied well by taphonomists. This is due to the lack of research attained by the other groups of Echinoderms and explains why more research is needed to attempt successfully (Nebelsick,
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