DEEP-SEA PAGES:
DEEP-SEA ECHINODERMS

Paul H. Yancey, Whitman College
Updated May 2019

Return to my MAIN DEEP-SEA PAGE for details on animal collection and for TOPIC CONTENTS (or use pull-down menu, below right).
If you copy and use photos, please WRITE for PERMISSION first at email just below. Some of these photos are mine, others are ones I took from theROV Oceanic Explorer's camera monitor.

If you can help us identify species with a *, please contact me at the email just above.
Note: many of the specimens have been deposited at the Field Museum in Chicago and loans of the material can be arranged through Janet Voight (voight@fmnh.org) or John Slapcinsky (Slapcin@fmnh.org)
OTHER TOPICS



ECHINODERMS:
Holothuroids, Asteroids, Ophiuroids, Echinoids, and Crinoids

Scotoplanes Sea Pig; DIAGRAM COURTESY OF PETER BATSON, author of Deep New Zealand - Blue Water, Black Abyss. Please contact him for permission at his website!
Echinoderms ("spiny skin") are one of the few animal phyla that are totally marine. They typically have a unique five-fold symmetry and a unique locomotory system consisting of hundreds of tube feet. Most groups are quite common in shallow waters, but for unknown reasons, they are extremely successful in the deep. Sea cucumbers (including sea pig types--pictures below, and diagrammed to the left) (Holothuroidea) are often the most common macroscopic animal in deep dredges. Sea pigs have been found at the greatest depths, about 11,000m in the Mariana Trench! -- Click Here for fun website on SEA PIGS. Most sea pigs plow along like worms and engulf the deep-sea mud, digesting organics and bacteria. However, there are some sea pig species that can swim above the bottom; see picture to right-->
Seastars or Starfish (Asteroidea) creep along with their tube feet and eat live prey and dead remains. Brittle and basket stars (Ophiuroidea) use their flexible arms rather than tube feet. Brittles move through the mud, scooping up organic remains; some brittles and the basket stars catch floating organic particles. Sea urchins (Echinoidea) are ovoid and covered with spines; they probably eat organic remains. They are usually rigid, but some of the abyssal ones are curiously soft and flexible. Sea lilies (Crinoidea) are like inverted starfish, with their arms up in the current to catch organic particles.

A swimming sea pig that we filmed at 7000m in the Kermadec Trench, shown in Blue Planet II Episode 2 (erroneously called a sea slug).

**CLICK PICTURE FOR LARGE VERSION** Depth ranges are kindly provided by Ruben Pohl.
A. OREGON/CALIFORNIA BATHYAL AND ABYSSAL: (a) = abyssal plain (2300-2850m), (b) = bathyal zone--continental slope (1800-2000m) off Newport, Oregon; (mb) = 1000-3000m in Monterey Bay Canyon
Holothuroidea (sea cucumbers/pigs) -- Click Here for fun website on SEA PIGS
cucumber1
cucumber2.cucumber2
cucumber3
cucumber4
seapig1
seapig2
Sea cucumber (a)
Molpadia intermedia

(50-2800m)
Swimming cucumber(a)(mb)*
(Benthodytes sanguinolenta?)
(500-5000m)
Sea cucumber (b)*
Molpadia intermedia
[ruptured]
Sea Cucumber x (b)*
Sea pig (a)*
Scotoplanes globosa
or clarkii (450-6900m)
Sea pig (mb) Scotoplanes sp.






Sea cucumber (mb)*
Pannychia moselei?, 1000m
Above: Sea pig from 8000m in Kermadec Trench
For deepest-living sea pigs, CLICK HERE and scroll down for HADAL or Trench species (ocean's deepest habitat)
Sea pig  (mb)
Scotoplanes spp, 1500m
Sea cucumber (mb)*
2000m
Abyssocucumis albatrossi? [ruptured]

"Football" cucumber (mb)*
Abyssocucumis albatrossi?
3000m

Cucumber* (mb, 2000m)
Perhaps Ypsilothuriid types (thanks to Ariadna Mecho, Inst. Mar. Sci. Barcelona)
Asteroidea (sea stars)
star1
star2star3
star3
star4
star5
star6
Seastar=?* (mb)
Slimestar2(b)*
(Hymenaster pellucidus??)
Miscellaneous stars
(mb, 3000m)*
Red seastar(b)
Hippasterias (californica?)
Seastar(b)
Mediaster sp. (tennellus?)
Mudstar(b)
Thrissacanthus pencillatus

(mainly 300-1500m)
Asteroidea (continued); Echinoidea (sea urchins); Crinoidea (sea lilies); Ophiuroidea (brittle/basket stars
star7
star8
star9
urchin
urchin2
crinoid
basketstar1
Seastar(b)
Pseudarchaster parelii
(150-2800m)
Seastar(b) Solaster sp. (borealis?)
Seastar(b)
Zoroaster sp.
Soft Sea urchin(a)
Tromikosoma panamense?

(1900-3300m)
Long-spined Sea urchin =?*(mb)
(from 3000m)

Crinoid(b)* or sea lily
(Florometra seratissima?)

Brittle star(b) Asteronyx (loveni?)
(ophiuroid; 100-2500m)
*Pictures with "*" are ones we haven't identified at the species level.

B. CALIFORNIA/OREGON SUBTIDAL: From Eel River seeps off Eureka at 510-525m (er); and Hydrate Ridge off Newport (OR) at 600m (hr).Photos of specimens by me, or taken from ROV monitor and Alvin cameras

.
Sea cucumber??* (er)
from 1200m
Sea cucumber (er)
Pannychia moselei?
Sea urchins (hr)*
Brittle star Asteronyx sp (er)*
living on seapens
Brittle stars (er)* from rock, mud

Seastar (er)
Rathbunaster californicus

134-675m depth
Sand star (hr)
Dipsacaster sp.
Red seastar (hr)
Cryptopeltaster lepidonotus
Crinoid (er)*
living inside Goiter Sponge


Reference books:
Deep-Sea Biology by J.D. Gage & P.A. Taylor, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Abyss by C.P. Idyll, Crowell Co., 1971

HOME PAGE: CONTENTS,
ZONES
1. Bacteria; Unknowns; WORMS
2. Bathyal
and Abyssal FISHES
4. CNIDARIA, Porifera
5. MOLLUSCS, CRUSTACEA, PYCNOGONIDA
6. MIDWATER
(Mesopelagic)
7. SURFACE (EPIPELAGIC)
8. METHANE SEEPS
and VENTS