Vocabulary

Water Vascular System: the internal network of fluid-filled canals involved in feeding, respiration, internal transport, excretion and movement

Monoecious: A term to distinguish sexes are separate

Ossicle: One of the small calcium carbonate plates that forms the endoskeleton of echinoderms

Pedicellaria: Small pincher-like structure on the surface of certain echinoderm which clean the body’s outer surface

Tube Feet: many small, flexible, fluid filled tubes that project from the body of an echinoderm and are used in locomotion, feeding, gas exchange, and nitrogen excretion

Madreporite: Sieve-like opening on the aboral surface of a starfish through which water enters the water vascular system

Ganglion: A mass of nerve cells

Stone Canal: Part of the water vascular system that connects the madreporite and ring canal

Ampulla: Bulb-like sac at the base of the tube foot which controls water entering and leaving the foot

Cardiac stomach: Portion of an echinoderm’s stomach that is extruded through the mouth during feeding

Hemolymph: The fluid that is circulated through the body of an animal with an open circulatory system

Hemocoel: The hemolymph-filled space or body cavity of some invertebrates

Bipinnaria: Winged larva seen in echinoderms

Pyloric stomach: In a sea star, the stomach that is connected to the digestive glands

Skin gills: One of the many hollow tubes that project from the surface of a sea star through which gas exchange and nitrogen excretion takes place

Nerve ring: Nerve that encircles the mouth in a sea star

Deuterostome: Organism whose embryonic blastopore becomes the anus

Ambulacral groove: Groove on the oral surface of a sea star that holds the tube feet

Radial nerve: Nerve that runs along inside the ambulacral ridge in each arm of a starfish

Radial (ambulacral )Canal: Portion of the sea star’s water vascular system that runs along inside the ambulacral ridge in each arm