Activity: Comparing Echinoderms
Materials
- Table 3.12
Procedure
Fill in Table 3.12 with information on echinoderms from the text and the previous activities. Wherever possible, focus on similarities and differences of structure, function, and behavior.
- Echinoderm tube feet
- What are tube feet? Write a clear definition in your own words.
- How do tube feet operate in echinoderm locomotion?
- How are tube feet adapted to different uses in the groups of echinoderms?
- Compare echinoderm locomotion to modes of locomotion used by other invertebrate phyla. Discuss in terms anatomy, life history, and body symmetry.
- Echinoderm skeletal structures
- How are skeletal structures similar across all echinoderm groups?
- How does the arrangement of skeletal structures differ in sea urchins, sea stars, and brittle stars?
- How do these differences establish the way these animals move?
- How do sea urchins, brittle stars, sea cucumbers, and crinoids protect themselves from predators attempting to eat them?
- Explain how the features listed in Table 3.12 serve as adaptations that might improve the survivability of an echinoderm.