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Plate of brittle stars from the Kunstformen der Natur from Ernst Haeckel (1904) Second plate of brittle stars from Haeckel. Between 2,064 [11] and 2,122 species of brittle stars are currently known, but the total number of modern species may be over 3,000. [12] This makes brittle stars the most abundant group of current echinoderms (before sea ...
This brittle star has a circum-boreal distribution. In the northern Atlantic Ocean it is common around Iceland, Spitzbergen and Norway southwards to the North Sea.On the eastern coast of North America its range extends from Greenland southwards to Long Island, and in the Pacific Ocean, its range stretches from Japan and the Bering Sea southwards to California. [3]
This brittle star usually spawns between May and January. Each individual is thought to spawn just once during each breeding season. A week after spawning, the planktonic larvae appear in the water column. They metamorphose into young brittle stars which drift in the plankton for about three weeks before settling. The smallest brittle stars ...
When brittle stars sexually reproduce, their fertilized eggs float in the water and eventually develop into larvae. Ophioplutei feed on plankton. Brittle star larvae are small and mostly clear. These larvae then go through metamorphosis, this is the stage where they develop their five arms. These young brittle stars then move on to the settling ...
In their larval state, banded brittle stars are extremely small and planktonic, like other echinoderm larvae. They are barrel-like in shape. They are barrel-like in shape. Unlike many larval echinoderms, however, banded brittle star larvae subsist on yolk (making them a type of larvae referred to as vitellariae), rather than using their bands ...
Ophiura ophiura is an active brittle star, moving with a jerky swimming action of its legs and sometimes burrowing. [2] It is a filter feeder, feeding on a wide range of food, [1] but also a bottom-feeding carnivore and detritivore. [7] It can regenerate its arms if they are damaged or torn off. [7] Sexual reproduction takes place during the ...
The larva of a Schayer’s brittle star is bilaterally symmetrical, with a ciliated band around the body. The next developmental form is a vitellaria larva, bordered by ciliary ridges. The vitellaria larva soon develops juvenile tube feet and ventral skeletal plates.
In the Irish Sea it is eaten along with the common brittle star (Ophiothrix fragilis) by the fast-moving seven armed starfish (Luidia ciliaris). [5] Individuals of this species are either male or female. Fertilisation is external and the larvae are planktonic. It is a fast-growing brittle star and is not thought to live for more than three ...