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) |
| 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). |
| 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 |
 |
 . |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
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)* |
Cucumber* (mb, 2000m) Perhaps Ypsilothuriid types (thanks to Ariadna Mecho, Inst. Mar. Sci. Barcelona) |
|
  |
 |
|
 |
|
|
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) |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
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 |
Brittle star(b) Asteronyx (loveni?)
(ophiuroid; 100-2500m) |
|
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 |
