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 Tuskegee University BIOL 121 Class Spring
2014

Starfish Dissection
INTRODUCTION:
The phylum Echinodermata includes starfishes or sea stars,brittle stars, sea urchins,
sea lilies, and sea cucumbers. All but the last have a limy internal skeleton and hard external
spines or plates. They are fixed or slow-moving inhabitants of the sea, from the high-tide
zone to considerable depths. Often they are abundant but none form colonies. Species of
shallow water are easily collected by hand at low tide and deeper ones are captured by
dredging. Those with skeletons are easily prepared merely by drying but specimens for
dissection are preserved in formalin or alcohol. Eggs of starfishes and sea urchins can readily
be obtained in quantity and fertilized as needed; hence, they serve for study in embryonic
development and in many experimental researches on animal eggs.

Common species of starfishes used for class work are Asterias forbesi and Asterias vulgaris of
the Atlantic coast and Pisaster ochraceus of the Pacific coast.

PURPOSE: To study the internal and external anatomy of a starfish

MATERIALS: A preserved specimen, dissecting pan, scalpel orrazor blade, probe, hand lens

CLASSIFICATION:
Kingdom - Animalia
Phylum - Echinodermata

1. EXTERNAL DISSECTION
A. Study a fluid-preserved specimen and identify:
Arms or rays - projecting from disc
Central disc - poorly defined
Oral surface - usually concave
Aboral surface - exposed in life
Madreporite - small white circular area, off-center on aboral surface of disc
Anus - minute, centered aborally on disc
Bivium - the two arms close to the madreporite
Spines - many short, rough, limy, in patterns over aboral surface
Eyespot - small, pigmented on one end of each arm
Ambulacral grooves - one along oral surface of each ray
Ambulacral spines - slender rods on margins of ambulacral grooves
Tube feet - soft, slender, with expanded tips; 2 or 4 rows in each groove
Tentacle - soft, on end of each arm
 Tuskegee University BIOL 121 Class Spring
2014

B. Examine a small area on the aboral surface under a binocular microscope and distinguish the
following:
Papulae or dermal branchiae - thin hollow soft projections which function as gills
Pedicellariae - minute pincers with two jaws; in circles around spines and elsewhere
 Tuskegee University BIOL 121 Class Spring
2014

2. INTERNAL DISSECTION

With the starfish in water and the aboral surface uppermost, use stout scissors to cut off the
extreme tip of each arm of the trivium. Then cut along the sides of these three arms. Use care
not to injure any internal organs. In turn, lift and carefully remove the aboral surface of each
arm, loosening the delicate mesenteries beneath by which the soft organs are attached. Also, cut
around the disc (but not the bivium) and remove the aboral surface, leaving the madreporite in
place. Finally, cut transversely, at mid- length, through one arm of the bivium to provide a cross
section.
 Tuskegee University BIOL 121 Class Spring
2014

Identify:
Coelom or body cavity - space containing internal organs; lined with thin ciliated peritoneum.
Stomach - disc, thin, sac- like, and 5-lobed, cardiac portion, larger, with pleated walls and
retractor muscles; pyloric portion, aboral, smaller, 5-sided and smoother
Intestine - very slender, short, from pyloric stomach to anus
Hepatic caeca - a pair in each arm, greenish, long, of many finger-like lobes, each caecum
with duct to pyloric stomach; also termer digestive glands, liver, or pyloric caeca.
Gonads - in each arm, below hepatic caeca, bilobed; each attached by duct opening aborally;
sexes separate.
 Tuskegee University BIOL 121 Class Spring
2014

3. WATER VASCULAR SYSTEM

Remove the side of the stomach near the madreporite; then starting from the latter, trace the parts
of the system.
 Tuskegee University BIOL 121 Class Spring
2014

Stone canal - limy tube in an angle of bivium, from madreporite to ring canal.
Ring canal - hard, circular, around mouth region
Tiede mann bodies - nine, small swellings in ring canal
Radial canal - from ring canal along each arm, see cross section; connects by transverse
canals to ampullae.
Ampullae - many, small, spherical, in floor of coelom -connect to tube feet
Tube feet
 Tuskegee University BIOL 121 Class Spring
2014

1. Madreporic Plate 9. Gonads

2. Spines 10. Stomach
3. Central Disc 11. Radial Canal
 Tuskegee University BIOL 121 Class Spring
2014
4. Ray 12. Madreporic Plate
5. Mouth 13. Stone Canal
6. Tube Feet 14. Ampullae
7. Stomach Coming Out Of Mouth 15. Ring or Circular Canal
8. Pyloric Cecum (Digestive Gland)

QUESTIONS :
What is the mode of action of the wate r vascular system?
How do the ampullae and tube feet act to affect locomotion?
How do the tube feet serve in food taking?
In adhering to solid objects?

You will be required to view a slide and determine if the slide specimen material
came from a male starfish or a female [Link] able to answer the following
types of questions concerning starfish and other echinoderms:

 Describe how the starfish and other echinoderms use its water vascular systems for
move ment.
 Explain how a starfish would eat a clam. (Explain in DETAIL!)
 Describe what would happen if a starfish lost or damaged one of its rays.

Know the phylogeny of the starfish:

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Echinodermata
Class Asteroidea
Orde r Forcipulatida
Family Asteriidae
Genus Asterias
Species (also its
Asterias forbesi
scientific name)

Know the functions of the following starfish structures:

 madreporite
 eyespot
QUESTIONS :
What is the mode of action of the water vascular system?
1.) Water enters through the madreporite
2.) Madreporite => Stone canal
3.) Stone canal => Radial Canal (one on each ray)
4.) Radial Canal => Ampullae
5.) Ampullae => Tube Feet
6.) Tube Feet => Locomotion

How do the ampullae and tube feet act to affect locomotion?

The ampullae contracts, sending water into the tube feet which stretch as water is
brought into them. Thus, allowing for a slow form of locomotion.

How do the tube feet serve in food taking?

They use their tube feet to grab onto prey, such as the shells of bivalves, then pry
them open. They then digest their food externally by expelling their stomachs out
of their mouth.

In adhering to solid objects?

Tube feet work the same way as suckers do
 Tuskegee University BIOL 121 Class Spring
2014
 tube feet
 retractor muscles
 hepatic caecum
 gonads

Describe the following vocabulary words associated with echinoderms and the
starfish.

 bivium
 coelom
 pentaradially symmetrical
 "echino-"
 "-dermata"

Starfish diagrams and photos to help you locate items during your lab
experience:
Tuskegee University BIOL 121 Class Spring
2014
Tuskegee University BIOL 121 Class Spring
2014
Tuskegee University BIOL 121 Class Spring
2014
Tuskegee University BIOL 121 Class Spring
2014
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