Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, Vol s3-102, 157-180, Copyright © 1961 by Company of Biologists

A Comparative Histological Study of the Tube-feet of two Regular Echinoids

¹ The Department of Zoology, University Museum, Oxford

The histology of the suckered and peristomial tube-feet of the two regular echinoids Cidaris cidaris (Cidaroida) and Echinus esculentus (Diadematoida) is described; of these orders the Cidaroida is the more primitive. The suckered tube-feet of both urchins have a connective-tissue sheath the fibres of which branch extensively before inserting at the disk, and in which are embedded numerous spicules, enlarged distally to form a supporting skeleton of the disk. A series of levator muscles, separate from the retractors of the stem, raise the centre of the disk during adhesion, and this activity also probably squeezes mucus from a series of glands opening at the disk surface. In Cidaris a second series of glands, goblet cells in the disk epithelium, are operated by special short muscle-fibres running between them; these cells and the muscles are absent in Echinus. In Cidaris sensory cells are apparently scattered over the entire disk surface, whereas in Echinus they appear to be mainly concentrated in a ring round the disk periphery. The peristomial tube-feet of both urchins are not suckered; the levator muscles are absent, and the disk, supported by a less complex calcareous skeleton, contains mainly sensory cells and mucous glands. The possible derivation of the diadematoid, clypeasteroid, and spatangoid tube-foot plans from that of the cidaroid is discussed. The differences in ornamentation of the regions of the test which bear the tube-feet are discussed functionally, the main conclusion being that a tube-foot whose activity is at all angles to the test requires a wider base than one whose activity is mainly perpendicular; this is shown to be the case in spatangoids also. A respiratory function for Stewart's organs in the Cidaroida is suggested.