Early Echinoderms

Echinoderms are today represented by animals that have a radial symmetry in their adult form (starfish, sea urchins, sea lilies, sea cucumbers, brittle stars) but they started as small creatures with bilateral symmetry. Represented here are:

Ctenoimbricata spinosa Zamora, Rahman & Smith, 2012 (Middle Cambrian, Murero Fm, Spain)

Ctenocystis utahensis Robison & Sprinkle, 1969 (Middle Cambrian, Wheeler Fm, Utah)
Class Ctenocystoidea, Order Ctenocystida

Protocinctus mansillaensis Rahman & Zamora, 2009 (Middle Cambrian, Mansilla Fm, Spain)
Class Homostelea, Order Cincta

Rhenocystis latipedunculata Dehm, 1932 (Lower Devonian, Hunsruck Slate, Germany)
Class Stylophora, Order Mitrata

Gogia spiralis Robison, 1965 (Middle Cambrian, Wheeler Fm, Utah)
Class Eocrinoidea, Order Gogiida

March 4, 2018


References:

Robison, R. A. (1965). Middle Cambrian eocrinoids from western North America. Journal of Paleontology, 39(3), 355-364.

Robison, R. A., & Sprinkle, J. (1969). Ctenocystoidea: new class of primitive echinoderms. Science, 166(3912), 1512-1514.

Rahman, I. A., & Zamora, S. (2009). The oldest cinctan carpoid (stem-group Echinodermata), and the evolution of the water vascular system. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 157(2), 420-432.

Zamora, S., Rahman, I. A., & Smith, A. B. (2012). Plated Cambrian bilaterians reveal the earliest stages of echinoderm evolution. PLoS One, 7(6), e38296.


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