Echinoderms (Crinoids, Starfish, Sand Dollars, & More)- Invertebrate Paleontology | GEO GIRL

Echinodermata is a phylum of invertebrate animals that includes 5-sided or radially sysmetrical animals such as starfish, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, heart urchins, sand dollars, and crinoids. This video on echinoderm paleontology covers echinoderm diversity, ecology, anatomy, morphology, evolution, and similarities to humans, as well as echinoderm classification, including classes of starfish / sea stars, brittle stars, sea cucumbers, with a focus on blastoids, crinoids (feather stars), and echinoids (sea urchins, heart urchins, and sand dollars). Echinoderms can either live attached to the seafloor as benthic animals or move or swim freely even as predators, such as starfish. Crinoids are not very common on modern Earth, but dominated benthic ecosystems at certain times in Earth's history. Crinoids take many forms and in the video I break down the major types of crinoids (monocyclic vs dicyclic crinoids and inadunate vs flexible vs camerate vs articulate crinoids). Echinoids have not exhibited as much diversity as crinoids throughout Earth's history, but they do have many body parts, which I label and discuss in this video. Crinoids and echinoids are related but live in very different environments. Crinoids live in a wide ranges of depths, but echinoids, prefer shallow water and even beach environments. Some echinoids can even burrow to live or eat in the sediment. As is the case for most invertebrate animals, echinoids underwent major evolutionary advances in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic Eras, which I discuss at the end of the video. Echinoderms are surprisingly the most closely related to vertebrate animals of all the invertebrates. Hope you enjoyed! ;D
Reference: Prothero, D.R. (2013). Bringing Fossils to Life: An Introduction to Paleobiology. Third Edition. Chapter 16: Spiny Skins: Echinodermata. pp. 348-383. Columbia University Press: amzn.to/3nU0ada
GEO GIRL Website: www.geogirlscience.com/ (visit my website to see all my courses, shop merch, learn more about me, and donate to support the channel if you'd like!)
0:00 What are Echinoderms?
2:29 Echinoderm morphology
4:31 Echinoderms are like us?
5:07 Echinoderm classification
6:19 Blastoids
8:17 Crinoid morphology
12:54 Crinoid classification
14:19 Crinoid identification practice!
17:32 Crinoid ecology
18:55 Echinoid morphology
21:07 Echinoid ecology
22:54 Echinoderm evolution
26:44 Upcoming content!
27:37 Bloopers!
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Non-textbook books I recommend:
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Brief history of Earth by A. Knoll: amzn.to/3w3hC1I
Life on young planet by A. Knoll: amzn.to/2RBMpny
Your inner fish by N. Shubin: amzn.to/3cpw3Wb
Alien Oceans by K. Hand: amzn.to/3clMx1l
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Image sources:
images.fineartamerica.com/ima...
oceana.org/sites/default/file...
northtexasfossils.com/fieldtri...
www.hakaimagazine.com/wp-cont...
images.fineartamerica.com/ima...
media.npr.org/assets/img/2013...
www.geologyin.com/2019/09/cri...
www.fossilmall.com/Western-Fos...
2.bp.blogspot.com/-qdl87iMiJrk...
indiana9fossils.com/wp-conten...
/ 455426581044833359
www.fossilera.com/fossils/kil...
assets0.fossilera.com/sp/1357...
www.fossilmall.com/EDCOPE_Ente...
i.ebayimg.com/images/g/wOIAAO...
i.pinimg.com/originals/ee/20/...
i.pinimg.com/originals/7d/72/...
68.media.tumblr.com/1dd02a619...
www.lakeneosho.org/Paleolist/3...
files.abovetopsecret.com/image...
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[@pukulu]

Speaking of echinoderms, I was working the rocks as a tidepool educator in Laguna Beach during the sea star die-off that occurred during the winter of 2013 - 2014. It was a sea star wasting disease, with arms falling off and the ossicles on their back coming off as well. Nearly all (over 90%) of the sea stars died. Many species suffered severe losses. Pisaster ochraceus is the sea star species that typically lives in the tidepools and on the rocks at the shoreline, consuming mussels, barnacles and limpets. They nearly all died. It might have been a 97% loss of the ochre seastar. Then the purple sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) and red sea urchins (Mesocentrotus franciscanus) died off during the summer of 2015. I last worked on the rocks back in March 2020 just before the covid-19 crisis, and I honestly don't know how the tidepool echinoderms are doing today. Once in awhile we would see a brittle star in the tidepools, typically a very small one. Sand dollars were rarely seen in the tidepools. Their tests would collect among piles of sea shells though. Sea cucumbers would wash into a tide pool once in awhile.

[@robguzzi237]

Smartest girl on KZbin. Well done.

[@GEOGIRL]

Aw, thanks so much! I hope I can continue to live up to that! ;D

[@sprchik11]

Was randomly searching for informative videos about echinoderms, and BAM, there's one uploaded 1 day ago! Great video! 👍 Already checking out your other vids, which are also awesome. Fantastic channel, love what you're doing! ❤

[@GEOGIRL]

Oh my gosh, that's so funny that you were looking for an echinoderm video! And I am so glad mine was helpful to you :D Thanks so much for the support, that makes my day!

[@luizrebelattoneto407]

Can you tell me the species and details of the crinoid species that is on the cover of the video?

[@colinmetzler]

Maybe my favorite is Callocystites jewetti-elongata, those are fascinating

[@minnashaw3904]

This was such a chill lecture. Thanks 😚

[@GEOGIRL]

No problem! I hope it's a good 'chill' and still informative haha! ;)

[@slimelich]

I went down a crinoid obsession rabbit hole a few years ago loll and yeah favs are either camerate crinoids or blastoids

[@macaroniex3]

My exams are killing me, but you’re saving my life

[@GEOGIRL]

So glad to hear that (the saving part not the killing part haha), best of luck! You can do it ;D

[@brahimbest1]

Now I understand those weird creatures thanks to your lecture,it's really helpful. BTW,my favorite echinoderms are sea stars(AKA starfish).

[@GEOGIRL]

That's great to hear! I love sea stars too, they are incredibly impressive animals, aren't they?! :D

[@onardico]

I love echinoderms, blastoids, cystoids and crinoids are so beautiful

[@GEOGIRL]

Me too! ;D

[@Mario_de]

Wow, im from barcelona and i just have this exam in 2 days and this is helping me a lot!! Thanks!!

[@GEOGIRL]

So glad you found it helpful! Thanks for the comment, and best of luck on your exam! ;D

[@briseboy]

The complex tropical gardens of invertebrates of my childhood are such a different world than the ecosystems familiar to almost all of you tht it all prevented me from favoritism (my older brother returned to that world in the most diverse reef and littoral world, the Southwest Pacific, and though he is an avid exploiter, as are all the humans resident anywhere, he retained his ecological niche from that stage of development.) When so young, we attributed sometimes accurate, sometimes completely erroneous functions to visible parts of echinoderms. Not knowing sea star eyespots evolved at the ends of their five to many multiple "legs" we had thought the eye was the Madreporite!. Knowing that the feet were hydraulic, and that urchin spines moved in similar ways, , we didn't dissect or understand their true anatomy. Our play with the mysterious intelligent octopus, which by the way has a ring neural structure brain, and the near-sessile sea cucumbers, and even those beautiful Sand Dollars, whose velvety surface can be the same color as your "wine-dark" background of many slides, when combined with the osteoicthyes, who so varied between lightning-fast accelerators like young Great Barracuda to the colorful reef fish, with some, parrotlike, able to gnaw hard corals, and the nearly see-through species that remain always right near the sheltering sea surface that camouflages them. Up here in North Pacific, even sea stars show huge variation in color, from those deep purples to copper and sandy colors. The peoples from Ireland to Japan exploit or "harvest" so many macroalgae types for consumption, that even tropical boys almost instantly learn which are best, while knowing little to nothing about the radiative diversity occurring so long ago. Sand Dollars are called "irregular" due to that migration of orifices, and have always the distinctive "front" and "rear", though small ones tend to the circular - surely due to being younger having plowed through much less sand!

[@itsnatalie274]

I’m here because I have an exam about this topic and reading all the lecture is not beneficial lmao,so helpful and complete!

[@yayamal1]

Great video

[@aravindagri-lt4br]

Thank u

[@sydhenderson6753]

There's at least one other deuterostome phylum, the Hemichordata, which despite their name appear to be more closely related to Echinodermata. There used to be more phyla included among the Deuterostomia but they keep getting moved into Protostomia or farther afield.

[@CaptainMir]

Good video 👍

[@GEOGIRL]

Thanks!

[@nadoaraujo4485]

Thanks for this videos... Could you making a video about the detail description of the morfology of the foraminifera

[@GEOGIRL]

I acutally have a detailed foraminifera video if you want to check it out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fYGnZ4WOodGljrM ;)

[@nadoaraujo4485]

Yahhh...thanks..Its helps me a lot..could I get your email

[@srmeister1]

thanks for the nice video. i am a little sad it doesnt include Carpoidea as i find them to be the strangest creatures that i have seen, well its just my opinion though. great video as always :)

[@GEOGIRL]

Yea the carpoids are pretty strange! Sorry there wasn't more on them, maybe someday I'll make a part 2 to this so I can do that ;D

[@luizrebelattoneto407]

Great video! Please, in the next videos make subtitles available in Portuguese.

[@GEOGIRL]

Thanks for letting me know, will do!

[@KerriEverlasting]

This kind of thing comes easily to me. It's so frustrating that the things I don't understand are where the answers lie.

[@KerriEverlasting]

Yes chemistry. I'm lookin at you.

[@jy6721]

Sorry, bit confused at 14:00 when you mentioned crinoids: articulates serving the Permian extinction but going extinct ‘today.’ Do we not have these today, as they are called ‘feather stars’ or are these another evolved species that are related but went extinct?

[@GEOGIRL]

We do! There are many groups of crinoids (or "feather stars") that did go extinct at the Permian extinction but the Articulate group survived the Permian extinction and continues to live today. This is the only living type of crinoid that humans have ever coexisted with. Sorry for confusion, I think it was because I used the phrase 'not go extinct' instead of 'live' haha. Hope this clears it up ;)

[@Whateverhasbeenmynameforyears]

You may have improved visuals at this point but the crinoid classification section was a lot of information to digest with all new terminology with no visuals to help understand. Images/diagrams would be helpful. Also making sure to tie in memory short cuts will all the new terminology every time you use it. (suggestions that might help) On the other side I really appreciate your color connections to make connections across your visuals.

[@mi4208]

But how palentologist identify pinnule if they are not preserver in fossil records🤔🤔🤔🤔

[@GEOGIRL]

Well not often preserved doesn't mean 'never' preserved. Sometimes, if you had an ideal environment for preservation, the pinnules can be saved. But even if they aren't we can identify these parts in modern crinoids since these animals still live today. :)

[@luizrebelattoneto407]

Can you tell me the species and details of the crinoid species that is on the cover of the video? 0:03

[@SeaScienceFilmLabs]

New subscriber here… 👋 I also Made an Echinoderm video! That’s so cool… Isn’t it amazing that fossils of Modern forms are found all the time, even in fossil deposits supposed to be hundreds of Millions of years old??? 🍎 Thanks for the sweet uploads! Keep up the great work.

[@GEOGIRL]

Yes, I couldn't agree more! Thanks for subscribing and commenting! I am headed over to your channel to find your echinoderm video right now ;D

[@JoesFirewoodVideos]

Sunday funday thanks to new content from GEO GIRL, this should be very interesting/educational/entertaining. You look amazing BTW... I ❤️ GEO GIRL!

[@GEOGIRL]

Thanks so much! I always love seeing your Sunday comments!

[@JoesFirewoodVideos]

There sure were some fascinating creatures 200 million years ago.

[@Larkinchance]

The echinoderm is a prickly issue.

[@shabahatkhan6114]

Your voice is sharp its hurts plz make it soft. Content is wort some valuable

[@gabeesp9654]

Hey Geogirl you look nice.

[@Whateverhasbeenmynameforyears]

Blasphemy not including pictures of blastoids on the first informational slide! Blastoids are the best ecinoderms. (obviously joking.)

[@cerberaodollam]

Underrated channel. BTW if you're a deuterostome, that means one day you were just an asshole. Some people never develop past this stage.