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A brachiolaria is the second stage of larval development in many starfishes. It follows the bipinnaria. Brachiolaria have bilateral symmetry, unlike the adult starfish, which have a pentaradial symmetry. Starfish of the order Paxillosida (Astropecten and Asterina) have no brachiolaria stage, with the bipinnaria developing directly into an adult.
Starfish sometimes have negative effects on ecosystems. Outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish have caused damage to coral reefs in Northeast Australia and French Polynesia. [59] [70] A study in Polynesia found that coral cover declined drastically with the arrival of migratory starfish in 2006, dropping from 50% to under 5% in three years.
The Asterozoa are a subphylum in the phylum Echinodermata, within the Eleutherozoa.Characteristics include a star-shaped body and radially divergent axes of symmetry. The subphylum includes the classes Asteroidea (the starfish or sea stars), Ophiuroidea (the brittle stars and basket stars), Somasteroidea (early asterozoans from which the other classes most likely evolved), and Stenuroidea ...
In being multiple-armed, it has lost the five-fold symmetry (pentamerism) typical of starfish, although it begins its lifecycle with this symmetry. The animal has true image-forming vision. [3] Adult crown-of-thorns starfish normally range in size from 25 to 35 cm (10 to 14 in). [4] They have up to 21 arms.
Internal features can also show symmetry, for example the tubes in the human body (responsible for transporting gases, nutrients, and waste products) which are cylindrical and have several planes of symmetry. Biological symmetry can be thought of as a balanced distribution of duplicate body parts or shapes within the body of an organism.
The marginal plates are fine, some bearing pedicellariae, and the tips of the arms have long, slender sensory tube feet and inconspicuous eyespots. The aboral surface is a radially symmetric star-shape of red, pink, purple and white plates; the oral (under) surface is a plain colour matching the main colour of the aboral surface.
Starfish have sensory cells in the epithelium and have simple eyespots and touch-sensitive tentacle-like tube feet at the tips of their arms. Sea urchins have no particular sense organs but do have statocysts that assist in gravitational orientation, and they too have sensory cells in their epidermis, particularly in the tube feet, spines and ...
The starfish can begin the metamorphosis into an adult once its characteristic radial symmetry is developed. Right after metamorphosis, the critter has a diameter of about 0.85 mm. Initial growth of the starfish is slow until the addition of the 6th arm, but once that happens, the addition of new arms occurs more rapidly.