Sea stars, sea urchins and their relatives

Echinoderms

The echinoderms are the sea stars, sea urchins, feather stars, brittle stars and sea cucumbers.

More about Echinoderms
- Sea stars and sea urchins - Echinodermata

Sea urchins and sea cucumbers

Sea urchins are small, globular, spiny sea creatures that move slowly, feeding mostly on algae. Like other echinoderms they have fivefold symmetry and move by means of hundreds of tiny, transparent, adhesive

More about Sea urchins and sea cucumbers

Feather stars and sea lilies

Sea lilies or feather stars belong to the Class Crinoidea and are characterized by a mouth on the top surface surrounded by feeding arms, often more than five. They usually have a stem to attach themselves to a substrate.

More about Feather stars and sea lilies
- Orange Feather Star

Image gallery

Echinoderm photo gallery

Brittle stars

The common name of brittle stars is derived from the fact that their arms fall off easily when handled or disturbed.

More about Brittle stars
- Schayer's Brittle Star

Sea stars

Sea stars often regrow arms bitten off by predators and, if disturbed, brittle stars drop off an arm or part of an arm. This allows them to escape predators as the cast-off arm continues to wriggle to distract the attention of the attacker.