Summary[edit] Description: Holothuria mexicana Ludwig, 1875 - donkey dung sea cucumber. Holothurians (sea cucumbers) are bizarre animals. They lack the obvious pentaradial symmetry of other echinoderms (starfish, sand dollars, etc.). They have soft, elongated, flexible bodies. Their skeletons consist of numerous, tiny, calcareous sclerites embedded in the body wall or covering the outer surface of the body. In general, sea cucumbers are benthic and vagrant, slowly moving around on the seafloor. They use mucus to collect organic debris from the seafloor and then consume the debris-covered mucus. Some holothurians can discharge internal organs and toxins from their posterior in response to potential predators. Rough handling of sea cucumbers by people can result in the same discharge behavior. Classification: Animalia, Echinodermata, Holothuroidea, Aspidochirotida, Holothuriidae Locality: Pigeon Creek estuary, southeastern San Salvador Island, eastern Bahamas. Date: 14 March 2013, 14:37. Source: Holothuria mexicana (donkey dong sea cucumber) (San Salvador Island, Bahamas) 2. Author: James St. John.
Description: Sea cucumbers (here Holothuria fuscopunctata) are not the most exciting animals, but they certainly are important to marine ecosystems. They are echinoderms (a phylum that also includes sea stars and sea urchins) that feed on plankton and decaying organic matter on the seafloor. So, basically, they are the ocean's vacuum cleaners. In fact, they're a lot like your friends who ask, "Are you going to eat that?" whenever there's old food you don't want left in the fridge. View image on my site: bit.ly/17l5vvH My website: bit.ly/VIb9Ev Facebook: on.fb.me/13IOQ1G Twitter: bit.ly/VIb9Ex Tumblr: bit.ly/13IOSXc Pinterest: bit.ly/VIb9Ez YouTube: bit.ly/13IOQ1I. Date: 17 July 2013, 10:32. Source: Creature of the Day. Author: Teddy Fotiou from United States. Permission(Reusing this file): : This work is free and may be used by anyone for any purpose. If you wish to use this content, you do not need to request permission as long as you follow any licensing requirements mentioned on this page. The Wikimedia Foundation has received an e-mail confirming that the copyright holder has approved publication under the terms mentioned on this page. This correspondence has been reviewed by an Volunteer Response Team (VRT) member and stored in our permission archive. The correspondence is available to trusted volunteers as ticket #2014091910006014. If you have questions about the archived correspondence, please use the OTRS noticeboard. Ticket link: https://ticket.wikimedia.org/otrs/index.pl?Action=AgentTicketZoom&TicketNumber=2014091910006014.
Summary[edit] Description: English: A sea cucumber (Holothuroidea, Psychropotes semperiana) seen at 2690 meters depth in Maro Crater during Leg 2 of the Hohonu Moana expedition. Sea cucumbers are “deposit feeders,” animals that ingest mud and sand grains to extract the organic material that has accumulated on the bottom after sinking through the water column. Date: 25 May 2006, 21:21:39. Source: http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1504/logs/sept12/sept12.html. Author: NOAA Okeanos Explorer.