GENERAL HISTOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Ecological Role Echinoderms play numerous ecological roles. Sand dollars and sea cucumbers burrow into the sand, providing more oxygen at greater depths of the sea floor. This allows more organisms to live there. In addition, starfish prevent the growth of algae on coral reefs.

Detailed explanation-2: -Summary. Echinoderms are an important part of the ocean food chain, keeping seaweed in check as grazers and serving as food sources for animals like otters. Echinoderms are used as food, medicine, and a source of lime for farmers.

Detailed explanation-3: -Echinoderms are named for their spiny skin, which is covered by a thin layer of calcium carbonate plates and spines. Adult echinoderms have radial symmetry, but larvae have bilateral symmetry. Echinoderms have a unique water vascular system, with canals that extend along each body part.

Detailed explanation-4: -2022). Echinoderms are distributed throughout the world’s seas, from the poles to the equator and from the intertidal to the hadal zone, inhabiting all marine ecosystems from estuaries, mangroves, and sandy beaches, to rocky and coral reefs (Birkeland 1989; Pawson 2007).