Abstract
Members of the phylum Echiura are marine, worm-like animals found burrowing in mud and sand, under rocks and in crevices, both on the shore and sublittorally. The body is divided into two parts; an anterior proboscis with a longitudinal ventral groove and a posterior, cylindrical or sac-like trunk which has two large, ventral setae near its anterior end. The mouth is at the posterior end of the proboscis. The species vary in length, from a few millimetres to a metre or more in those species in which the proboscis is long and highly extensible. Echiurans feed on detritus collected on a mucous sheet secreted by the proboscis. The sexes are separate and fertilization is usually external with a free-swimming trochophore larva.
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Reference
Stephen, A.C. & S.J. Edmonds 1972. The phyla Sipuncula and Echiura. London: British Museum (Natural History).
Greef, R. 1879. Die Echiuren (Gephyrea armata). Nova Acta Academiae caesareae Leopoldino-Carolinae 41 1–172. (Echiurus echiurus, Pl. 1, Fig. 3).
Rietsch, M. 1886. Étude sur les Gephyriens armés ou Échiurens. Recueil Zoologique Suisse 3, 313–515. (Thalassema thalassemum, Pl. 21, Fig. 92).
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© 1989 J.D. Fish & S. Fish
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Fish, J.D., Fish, S. (1989). Echiura. In: A Student’s Guide to the Seashore. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5888-6_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5888-6_17
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-0-04-574044-4
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