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Members of the
Elpidiidae have particularly enlarged tube "feet" that have taken on a leg-like appearance, using water cavities within the skin to inflate and deflate thereby causing the
appendages to move.[2] The "horns" on its back are also actually legs. Scotoplanes move through the top layer of
seafloor sediment and disrupt both the surface and the resident
infauna as it feeds.[3]MUN Website
Some related species can be found in the
Antarctic. Scotoplanes (and all deep-sea holothurians) are deposit feeders and obtain food by extracting organic particles from deep-sea mud. Scotoplanes globosa has been observed to demonstrate strong preferences for rich, organic food that has freshly fallen from the ocean's surface[7] and uses
olfaction to locate preferred food sources such as
whale corpses.[8]
Scotoplanes, like many
sea cucumbers, often occur in huge densities, sometimes numbering in the hundreds when observed. Early collections have recorded groups of up to 300-600 individuals. Sea pigs are also known to host different
parasiticinvertebrates, including
gastropods (snails) and small
tanaidcrustaceans. [citation needed]
Scotoplanes, like other sea cucumbers, host
parasitic and
commensal organisms. For example, it provides a shelter to juvenile crabs, Neolithodes diomedeae. It is known that such relationship benefits the crabs because they can reduce risks of predation when they are under the shelter.[9]
Size
Scotoplanes can be as big as up to 4-6" (15 cm) long.[10]
Physiology
Scotoplanes are tiny and have their own defence mechanism to protect themselves from predators. Their skin contains a toxic chemical called
holothurin which is poisonous to other creatures.
Like all
echinoderms, Scotoplanes have a poorly developed respiratory system and they breathe from their anus. Their bodies are made for the deep seas and bringing them too close to the surface would cause them to disintegrate.[11]
A study done provides histologic findings that these deep-sea dwelling sea pigs are similar to other holothuroidea, though there are few notable differences: Most holothurians are sexually dioecious with sexes in separate individuals. Unlike other echinoderms, holothuroids possess only a single gonad. The water vascular system of holothuians is similar to other echinoderms, except the madreporite opens in the perivisceral coelom instead of in the external body wall.[13] In male Scotoplanes their aboral intestines have protozoa inside these cyst cavities.[13]
References
^Théel, H (1886). "Report on the Holothurioidea dredged by HMS Challenger during the years 1873-76". {{
cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (
help)
^Blake, James A.; Maciolek, Nancy J.; Ota, Allan Y.; Williams, Isabelle P. (2009-09-01). "Long-term benthic infaunal monitoring at a deep-ocean dredged material disposal site off Northern California". Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography. 56 (19–20): 1775–1803.
Bibcode:
2009DSRII..56.1775B.
doi:
10.1016/j.dsr2.2009.05.021.
^Barry, James P.; Taylor, Josi R.; Kuhnz, Linda A.; De Vogelaere, Andrew P. (2016-10-01). "Symbiosis between the holothurian Scotoplanes sp. A and the lithodid crab Neolithodes diomedeae on a featureless bathyal sediment plain". Marine Ecology. 38 (2): e12396.
doi:
10.1111/maec.12396.
ISSN1439-0485.
^Llano, George Biology of the Antarctic Seas III, Volume 11 of Antarctic research series, Volume 3 of Biology of the Antarctic seas, Issue 1579 of Publication (National Research Council (U.S.))) American Geophysical Union, 1967, p. 57
^Miller, R. J.; Smith, C. R.; Demaster, D. J.; Fornes, W. L. (2000). "Feeding selectivity and rapid particle processing by deep-sea megafaunal deposit feeders: A 234Th tracer approach". Journal of Marine Research. 58 (4): 653.
doi:
10.1357/002224000321511061.
^Pawson, DL; Vance, DJ (2005). "Rynkatorpa felderi, new species, from a bathyal hydrocarbon seep in the northern Gulf of Mexico (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea: Apodida)". Zootaxa. 1050: 15–20.
doi:
10.11646/zootaxa.1050.1.2.
^Barry, James P.; Taylor, Josi R.; Kuhnz, Linda A.; De Vogelaere, Andrew P. (2017). "Symbiosis between the holothurian Scotoplanes sp. A and the lithodid crab Neolithodes diomedeae on a featureless bathyal sediment plain". Marine Ecology. 38 (2): e12396.
Bibcode:
2017MarEc..38E2396B.
doi:
10.1111/maec.12396.