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Aristotle's lantern in a sea urchin, viewed in lateral section. The mouth of most sea urchins is made up of five calcium carbonate teeth or plates, with a fleshy, tongue-like structure within. The entire chewing organ is known as Aristotle's lantern from Aristotle's description in his History of Animals (translated by D'Arcy Thompson):
Oral surface of Strongylocentrotus purpuratus showing teeth of Aristotle's Lantern, spines and tube feet. Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. Strongylocentrotus purpuratus is a species of sea urchin in the family Strongylocentrotidae commonly known as the purple sea urchin.
Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis eats by using a special appendage called an Aristotle’s lantern to scrape or tear their food into digestible bits. This structure is made of five calcareous, protractible teeth that are maneuvered by a complex muscular structure.
Aristotle’s lantern is a complex system of jaws and muscles which are capable of a variety of feeding types including suspension feeding, herbivory and detritivory feeding, and occasionally predation. Adaptations to this lantern have allowed sand dollars to live in habitats which have fine, shifting substrates.
Other large specialist plates surround the mouth in a set of jaws known as Aristotle's lantern. [4] Sea stars have separate plates giving flexibility to the disc and arms. They are arranged into interambulacral and ambulacral regions and the arms have an ambulacral groove on the underside from which the tube feet project.
The mouthparts, known as the Aristotle's lantern, have simple plates and grooved teeth. The gills are relatively small, and in many species, entirely absent. The gills are relatively small, and in many species, entirely absent.
Oral surface of Strongylocentrotus purpuratus showing the teeth of the Aristotle's Lantern, which can make the trace Gnathichnus.. Gnathichnus is a trace fossil on a hard substrate (typically a shell, rock or hardground made of calcium carbonate) formed by regular echinoids as they scraped the surface with their five-toothed Aristotle's Lantern feeding structures.
The red sea urchin (Mesocentrotus franciscanus) [1] is a sea urchin found in the northeastern Pacific Ocean from Alaska to Baja California.It lives in shallow waters from the low-tide line to greater than 280 m (920 ft) deep, [2] and is typically found on rocky shores sheltered from extreme wave action in areas where kelp is available.