Paleontology and evolution

Extinct echinoderms

Because the phylum Echinodermata was already well diversified by the Lower Cambrian Period, a considerable amount of Precambrian evolution must have taken place. A Precambrian fossil from Australia has triradiate symmetry and a superficial resemblance to an edrioasteroid; it has been suggested that the triradiate condition may have been a precursor of pentamerous symmetry, and that this fossil is a “pre-echinoderm.” Scientists speculate that the lack of Precambrian fossil echinoderms indicates that while the earliest echinoderms may have possessed a water-vascular system, they lacked a calcite skeleton and thus did not fossilize. While the fossil record of echinoderms is extensive, there are many gaps, and many questions remain concerning the early evolution of the group. Ancient echinoderms exhibited an extraordinary variety of bizarre body forms; the earliest classes seemed to be “experimenting” with body shapes and feeding mechanisms; most were relatively short-lived. Early echinoderms were adapted to life on the surface of hard or soft seafloors, though the burrowing habit may have been acquired relatively early by sea cucumbers.

Extant echinoderms

Relationships among the living classes of echinoderms have been the subject of debate for many decades. Some scientists believe that larval stages reflect the interrelationships of the groups; thus, because sea urchins and brittle stars have pluteus larvae, they form a natural group, and starfishes and sea cucumbers form another for the same reason. Some biochemical studies support this scheme. On the other hand, comparative anatomy and some paleontology studies suggest that brittle stars and starfishes may have originated from a crinoidlike ancestor and should be placed together, and their general star shape would support this. Modern sea cucumbers and sea urchins share a globoid body but little else; however, some fossil sea urchins with overlapping skeletal plates share several features with some sea cucumbers.

Distinguishing taxonomic features

The classification of the echinoderms underwent a great upheaval during the 1970s and 1980s, and much disagreement remains. The five subphyla presented here are based upon combinations of characters: Homalozoa are asymmetrical; Blastozoa are stalked, with simple feeding apparatus; Crinozoa are stalked, with complex feeding apparatus; Asterozoa are star-shaped; Echinozoa are globoid to discoid. Below the subphylum level, the criteria for classification vary, but the skeleton is the most important; most groups can be characterized on the basis of skeletal characters alone.

Annotated classification

The echinoderms once were divided into two great groups, the Pelmatozoa and the Eleutherozoa, the names referring to living habits; pelmatozoans were attached to the seafloor for at least part of their life cycle while eleutherozoans were unattached animals capable of moving freely over the seafloor. It has been argued that such a separation is confusing, because each group contains a mixture of subgroups bearing no relationship to the evolutionary history of the phylum. The terms pelmatozoan and eleutherozoan are often used to describe the life habits of echinoderms. Some sea cucumbers, for example, have adopted a pelmatozoan habit, attaching themselves to rocks and feeding on plankton; others are eleutherozoan, moving about the seafloor while feeding, or even actively swimming.

The classification presented here is based upon current research by paleontologists and zoologists. Totally extinct classes, marked with a dagger (†), are known only as fossils.

• Phylum Echinodermata (echinoderms)

  Marine invertebrates worldwide in distribution; skeleton composed of calcium carbonate in the form of calcite; most fossils and all living representatives with 5-part body symmetry (pentamerous); part of body cavity (coelom) comprises a water-vascular system. Cambrian to Recent. About 6,000 extant species, about 13,000 extinct species described.

  • †Subphylum Homalozoa (carpoids)

    Middle Cambrian to Middle Devonian about 365,000,000–570,000,000 years ago; without 5-part symmetry; with fundamentally asymmetrical flattened body.

    • †Class Stylophora

      Middle Cambrian to Upper Ordovician about 460,000,000–540,000,000 years ago; with unique single feeding arm sometimes interpreted as a stem.

    • †Class Homostelea

      Middle Cambrian about 540,000,000 years ago; no feeding arm, but with stem of essentially 2 series of plates.

    • †Class Homoiostelea

      Upper Cambrian to Lower Devonian about 400,000,000–510,000,000 years ago; with a feeding arm and a complex stem composed in part of more than 2 series of plates.

    • †Class Ctenocystoidea

      Middle Cambrian about 540,000,000 years ago; no feeding arm and no stem, but with unique feeding apparatus consisting of a grill-like array of movable plates around mouth.

  • †Subphylum Blastozoa (blastozoans)

    Cambrian to Permian about 280,000,000–540,000,000 years ago. Stalked echinoderms with soft parts enclosed in a globular theca (chamber) equipped with simple, erect food-gathering appendages (brachioles).

    • †Class Eocrinoidea

      Lower Cambrian to Silurian about 430,000,000–570,000,000 years ago; body usually consisting of stem, theca, and feeding brachioles.

    • †Class Blastoidea

      Silurian to Permian about 280,000,000–430,000,000 years ago; stem, theca with 18–21 plates arranged in 4 rings; numerous feeding brachioles; distinctive infoldings of theca (hydrospires) well developed.

    • †Class Paracrinoidea

      Middle Ordovician about 460,000,000 years ago; with stem, theca, and arms with barblike structures (pinnules); plates of theca with pore system of unique type.

    • †Class Parablastoidea

      Lower to Middle Ordovician about 460,000,000–500,000,000 years ago; resemble Blastoidea but differ in structure of ambulacra and in numbers of thecal plates.

    • †Class Rhombifera

      Lower Ordovician to Upper Devonian about 350,000,000–500,000,000 years ago; theca globular; respiratory structures rhomboid sets of folds or canals.

    • †Class Diploporita

      Lower Ordovician to Lower Devonian about 400,000,000–500,000,000 years ago; theca globular; respiratory structures pairs of pores.

  • Subphylum Crinozoa

    Both fossil and living forms (Lower Ordovician about 500,000,000 years ago to Recent); with 5-part symmetry; soft parts enclosed in theca, which gives rise to 5 or more complex feeding arms.

    • Class Crinoidea (sea lilies and feather stars)

      Lower Ordovician about 500,000,000 years ago to Recent; with, or secondarily without, a stem; theca reduced to small, cup-carrying hollow, usually branching, feeding arms with numerous small pinnules; includes fossil subclasses Camerata, Inadunata, and Flexibilia; living subclass Articulata, which includes stalked sea lilies and unstalked feather stars; about 700 living species.

  • Subphylum Asterozoa

    Fossil and living forms (Lower Ordovician about 500,000,000 years ago to Recent); radially symmetrical with more or less star-shaped body resulting from growth of arms in 1 plane along 5 divergent axes; central mouth; 5 arms; dorsal tube feet and mouth.

    • Class Stelleroidea

      Features as subphylum above.

    • †Class Somasteroidea

      Lower Ordovician to Upper Devonian about 350,000,000 years ago. Superficially like Asteroidea, without a groove for tube feet.

    • Class Asteroidea(starfishes or sea stars)

      Fossil and living forms (Middle Ordovician about 460,000,000 years ago to Recent); about 1,800 living species; arms broad, hollow; pinnate structure or arrangement of arms disrupted by dominant longitudinal growth axes; tube feet numerous, carried in grooves on the oral surface of the body; tube feet pointed or equipped with terminal suckers; respiration often by interradial gills on aboral surface of body; includes living orders Platyasterida, Paxillosida, Valvatida, Spinulosida, Forcipulatida, Notomyotida, and Brisingida.

    • Class Ophiuroidea(brittle stars or serpent stars)

      Fossil and living forms (Ordovician about 460,000,000 years ago to Recent); disk sharply distinct from long, slender, solid arms; no furrow for tube feet; no suctorial tube feet; no anus; no pedicellariae; respiration by interradial gills on oral surface of body; includes living orders Oegophiurida, Phrynophiurida, and Ophiurida; about 2,000 living species.

    • Class Concentricycloidea(sea daisies)

      Body flattened, disk-shaped, without obvious arms; water-vascular system with tube feet on oral surface of body; water-vascular canals form double ring; includes order Peripodida; 2 living species.

  • Subphylum Echinozoa

    Fossil and living forms (Lower Cambrian about 570,000,000 years ago to Recent); radially symmetrical with fundamentally globoid body secondarily cylindrical or discoid; outspread arms or brachioles totally absent.

    • †Class Cyclocystoidea

      Middle Ordovician to Middle Devonian about 375,000,000–460,000,000 years ago; small, disk-shaped; theca composed of numerous plates; ambulacral system with multiple branching.

    • †Class Edrioasteroidea

      Lower Cambrian to Lower Carboniferous about 340,000,000–570,000,000 years ago; discoid to cylindrical; 5 well-developed straight or curved ambulacral food grooves radiate from a central mouth.

    • †Class Edrioblastoidea

      Middle Ordovician about 375,000,000 years ago; stalked form with spheroidal theca; 5 well-developed food grooves.

    • †Class Helicoplacoidea

      Lower Cambrian about 570,000,000 years ago; pear-shaped or spindle-shaped body with many plates arranged spirally.

    • †Class Ophiocistioidea

      Lower Ordovician to Upper Silurian about 395,000,000–500,000,000 years ago; dome-shaped body partly or completely covered by well-developed test; 5 ambulacral tracts carry plated tube feet relatively enormous in size.

    • Class Holothuroidea (sea cucumbers)

      Fossil and living forms (Ordovician about 460,000,000 years ago to Recent); cylindrical body, elongated orally–aborally, with mouth at or near one end, anus at or near the other; mouth surrounded by conspicuous ring of feeding tentacles; no spines or pedicellariae; single interradial gonad; skeleton usually reduced to form microscopic spicules; includes living orders Dendrochirotida, Dactylochirotida, Aspidochirotida, Elasipodida, Molpadiida, and Apodida; 1,100 living species.

    • Class Echinoidea (sea urchins, heart urchins, sand dollars)

      Fossil and living forms (Ordovician 460,000,000 years ago to Recent); globular, discoid, or oval in shape, with complete skeleton (test) of interlocking plates bearing movable spines and pedicellariae; mouth directed downward; anus present; 5 or fewer interradial gonads. Includes subclass Perischoechinoidea with living order Cidaroida, and subclass Euechinoidea with living superorders Diadematacea and Echinacea (comprising the “regular” echinoids), and Gnathostomata and Atelostomata (comprising the “irregular” echinoids); 900 living species.