Orange-footed sea cucumber

Orange-footed sea cucumber
Cucumaria frondosa
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Holothuroidea
Order: Dendrochirotida
Family: Cucumariidae
Genus: Cucumaria
Species: C. frondosa
Binomial name
Cucumaria frondosa
Gunnerus


The Orange-footed sea cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa) is the largest sea cucumber in New England.[1] It is one of the most abundant and widespread species of holothurians within the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea (Russia), [2] being most abundant along the eastern coast of North America. [3][4]

Description

These sea cucumbers reach around 20 cm (8 in) in length and have ten branched oral tentacles ranging in colour from orange to black.[5] This species has a football shape with a leathery skin ranging in colour from yellowish white to dark brownish-black and is covered with five rows of retractile tube feet.[5][6] The young are about 1 mm to 6 mm longand are translucent orange and pink.[5] Three of these bands of tube feet are found on bottom whereas the top rows are often reduced. Adults of C. frondosa have a reduced numbers of spicules (skeletal structures) shaped like rounded plates with many holes.[7] The sexes can be identified by the conspicuous tube-shaped (female) or heart-shaped (male) gonopore located under the crown of oral tentacles.[8]

Habitat

Their habitat is rocks, crevices or low-tide Arctic water.[9] They are known to cover vast areas of the substrate at depths of less than 30 meters (100 ft). [10][11]

References

  1. ^ Leland W. Pollock 1998 - A Practical Guide to the Marine Animals of Northeastern North America -Rutgers University Press Page 276
  2. ^ Gudimova, E.N., Gudimov, A., and Colline, P. 2004. A study of the biology for fishery in two populations of Cucumaria frondosa: In the Barents Sea (Russia) and in the Gulf of Maine (USA). In Echinoderms: München. Edited by T. Heinzeller and J.H. Nebelsick. CRC Press, London.
  3. ^ Hyman, L.H. 1955. The invertebrates: Echinodermata. McGraw-Hill Book Company Inc., New York.
  4. ^ Jordan, A.J. 1972. On the ecology and behavior of Cucumaria frondosa (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea) at Lamoine Beach, Maine. Ph.D. thesis, Department of Biology, The University of Maine, Orono, M.E. 74 pp.
  5. ^ a b c Gosner, K.L. 1978. This species of Sea Cucmber can move about two feet per day. It is able to accomplish this task by the movement of its stomach wall muscles.Peterson field guides: Atlantic seashore. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
  6. ^ Jordan, A. J. 1972. On the ecology and behaviour of Cucumaria frondosa (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea at Lamoine Beach, Maine. Ph.D. thesis, University of Maine and Orono, Orono. United States.
  7. ^ Levin, V. S., and Gudimova, E. N. 2000. Taxonomic interrelations of holothurians Cucumaria frondosa and C. japonica (Dendrochirotida, Cucumariidae). S.P.C. Beche-de-mer Inf. Bull. 13: 22-29.
  8. ^ Hamel, J.-F. and Mercier, A. 1996a. Early development, dettlement, growth, and spatial distribution of the sea cucumber Cucumaria frondosa (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea). Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 53: 253-271.
  9. ^ Andrew J. Martinez - 2003 - Marine Life of the North Atlantic: Canada to New England - Aqua Quest Publications Page 178
  10. ^ Jordan, A.J. 1972. On the ecology and behavior of Cucumaria frondosa (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea) at Lamoine Beach, Maine. Ph.D. thesis, Department of Biology, The University of Maine, Orono, M.E. 74 pp.
  11. ^ Singh, R., MacDonald, B.A., Lawton, P., and Thomas, M.L.H. 1998. Feeding response of the dendrochirote sea cucumber Cucumaria frondosa (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea) to changing food concentrations in the laboratory. Can. J. Zool. 76: 1842-1849.


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