The end-Paleozoic witnessed the most devastating mass extinction in Earth's history so far, killing the majority of species and profoundly shaping the evolutionary history of the survivors.

Echinoderms, including sea urchins and sea cucumbers, offer a unique window into the evolution of innate immunity. Their immune systems operate without the classical adaptive components seen in ...

The evolution of the sea star, sea urchin, and other echinoderms’ body shape during the Cambrian and Ordovician periods was faster and more dramatic than their ecological innovation, according to a ...

The impact on levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere by the decaying remains of a group of marine creatures that includes starfish and sea urchin has been significantly underestimated. The ...

How the echinoderm larval skeleton is used for support of larval arms, passive orientation, and swimming was examined by experimentally removing the skeletons of plutei and by comparing feeding larvae ...

Sea stars and their relatives eat, breathe and scuttle around the seafloor with tiny tube feet. Now researchers have gotten their first-ever look at similar tentacle-like structures in an extinct ...

Researchers in Japan have finally observed living larvae of a sea lily, a marine invertebrate with a 500-million-year fossil record. The finding supports a century-old hypothesis about how the ...

This collaborative studentship is potentially funded by the University of Reading as part of a strategic partnership to support innovative collaborative research between the University and the Natural ...

Researchers at University of Tsukuba have identified a brain-like cluster of neurons in sea urchin larvae, traditionally considered lacking a brain, that regulates light-responsive behavior. The work ...

Echinoderm research and diversity in Latin America / Juan José Alvarado and Francisco Alonso Solís-Marín -- The echinoderms of Mexico : biodiversity, distribution and current state of knowledge / ...