Echinodermata! Starfish! Sea Urchins! Sea Cucumbers! Stone Lillies! Feather Stars! Blastozoans! Sea Daisies!
Marine invertebrates found throughout the world's oceans with a rich and ancient fossil legacy. Their biology and evolution includes a wide range of crazy and wonderful things. Let me share those things with YOU!
But seriously, I do have a question: why is it that echinoderms have never developed into terrestrial or even freshwater forms? Is there anything inherent in their biology that prevents adaptation to these environments?
Emily ha! A very good question. Its been thought that the lack of any kind of good filtration has been key. ie. the inability to balance water with solute relative to differing habitats. Arthropods, mollusks, all have various mechanisms for tolerating these settings-kidneys, armor, etc. for water retention, processing, so forth. So far as is known echinoderms are pretty poor at managing these physiological issues. This may also be why no echinoderms occupy really prominent positions in chemosynthetic (vent or seep) habitats.
Have you forgotten Starro?! Not only is he an echinoderm, he's larger than most save for some found in the fossil record. There is no need to answer. Clearly you are one of Starro's thralls trying to make people forget the threat from this deadly land-dwelling starfish from another galaxy!
10 comments:
YOU GOT ME! i even checked to see if i was having an internet connectivity problem, wondering why the post wouldn't load.
thanks for all the great posts.
thanks! :-)
I am very impressed by how well camouflaged they are, and the breadth of your knowledge is remarkable. Another informative post, thank you! (^_-)
I love reading (and writing) elaborate April Fools' jokes, but sometimes the simple can also be brilliant.
Dear Chris, I was going to post a comment, and then I thought ...wait! There are no land and freshwater etc etc. Thanks for the laugh. Brilliant.
Very informative post!
But seriously, I do have a question: why is it that echinoderms have never developed into terrestrial or even freshwater forms? Is there anything inherent in their biology that prevents adaptation to these environments?
Emily
ha! A very good question. Its been thought that the lack of any kind of good filtration has been key. ie. the inability to balance water with solute relative to differing habitats. Arthropods, mollusks, all have various mechanisms for tolerating these settings-kidneys, armor, etc. for water retention, processing, so forth. So far as is known echinoderms are pretty poor at managing these physiological issues. This may also be why no echinoderms occupy really prominent positions in chemosynthetic (vent or seep) habitats.
ha! this should be a post in and of itself!
Thanks for the interesting reply!
No kidneys? You could say they're piss-poor at filtration...
HA! I'll show myself out.
Have you forgotten Starro?! Not only is he an echinoderm, he's larger than most save for some found in the fossil record. There is no need to answer. Clearly you are one of Starro's thralls trying to make people forget the threat from this deadly land-dwelling starfish from another galaxy!
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