Basket star
| Basketstars | |
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| Suborder: | Euryalina Lamarck, 1816
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Asteronychidae | |
Basket stars are a group of brittle stars. They are treated as a suborder Euryalina[1] or order Euryalida[2]. Many of them have characteristic many-branched arms. They generally live in deep sea habitats. In the wild they may live up to 35 years. They weigh around 11 lbs (5 kg). Like other echinoderms, basket stars lack blood and achieve gas exchange via their water vascular system.
The basket stars are the largest ophiuroids with Gorgonocephalus stimpsoni measuring up to 70 cm in arm length with a disk diameter of 14 cm[3].
Systematics and phylogeny
The fossil record of this group is rather poor and only dates back to Carboniferous[4]. Basket stars are divided into the following families:
References
- ^ "Euryalina". Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
- ^ Smith, A.B.; Paterson, G.L.J. . Ophiuroid phylogeny and higher taxonomy: morphological, molecular and palaeontological perspectives. Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 114 (1995)
- ^ Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, vol 1, Gale Cengage 2003
- ^ E.Clarkson, E. N.K. Clarkson, Invertebrate Palaeontology and Evolution. Wiley-Blackwell; 4.ed. (1998)
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