Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Echinoderma" to "Edward, prince of Wales": Volume 8, Slice 10Various
Science
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Echinoderma" to "Edward, prince of Wales": Volume 8, Slice 10
Various
Encyclopedias and dictionaries
Order 3. _Dicyclica Camerata._--Dicyclica in which the first, and
usually the second, orders of brachials are incorporated in the dorsal
cup by interbrachials, at first loosely, but afterwards by close
suture. IBB always the primitive 5. An anal plate always rests on the
posterior basal; mouth and tegminal food-grooves closed; arms
pinnulate. Families: Reteocrinidae, Dimerocrinidae, Lampterocrinidae,
Rhodocrinidae, Cleiocrinidae.
Class IV. EDRIOASTEROIDEA.--Pelmatozoa in which the theca is composed
of an indefinite number of irregular plates, some of which are
variously differentiated in different genera; with no subvective
skeletal appendages, but with central mouth, from which there radiate
through the theca five unbranched ambulacra, composed of a double
series of alternating plates (covering-plates), sometimes supported by
an outer series of larger alternating plates (side-plates or
flooring-plates). In some forms at least, pores between (not through)
the ambulacral elements, or between them and the thecal plates, seem
to have permitted the passage of extensions from the perradial
water-vessels. Anus in posterior interradius, on oral surface, closed
by valvular pyramid. Hydropore (usually, if not always, present)
between mouth and anus. Families: Agelacrinidae, Cyathocystidae,
Edrioasteridae, Steganoblastidae. All Palaeozoic. The structure and
importance of _Edrioaster_ have been discussed above (figs. 11, 12).
Grade B. ELEUTHEROZOA--Echinoderma in which the theca, which may be
but slightly or not at all calcified, is not attached by any portion
of its surface, but is usually placed with the oral surface downwards
or in the direction of forward locomotion. Food is not conveyed by a
subvective system of ciliated grooves, but is taken in directly by the
mouth. The anus when present is typically aboral, and approaches the
mouth only in a few specialized forms. The aboral nervous system, if
indeed it be present at all, is very slightly developed. The
circumoesophageal water-ring may lose its connexion with the exterior
medium; the podia (absent only in some exceptional forms) may be
locomotor, respiratory or sensory in function, but usually are
locomotor tube-feet.
The classes of the Eleutherozoa probably arose independently from
different branches of the Pelmatozoan stem. The precise relation is
not clear, but the order in which they are here placed is believed to
be from the more primitive to the more specialized.
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