Endoskeleton
Echinoderms are a phylum with usually 5 fold symmetry, spines and calcium carbonate plates.
Hardened plates of calcium carbonate form its endoskeleton.
YES, but it is not the same "ossicles" that are found in the mammal ear. Echinoderm ossicles are small calcium-matrix plates that make up the dermis or endoskeleton of the echinoderm. They provide protection and support to the underlying tissue.
Echinoderms have an Endoskeleton made up of 95 % calcium carbonate.
Ossicles
Calcium carbonate
Ossicles
Ossicles
Echinoderms such as starfish and similar marine animals with radially symmetrical bodies have bone-like calcareous skeletal plates in their skin
In echinoderms, instead of having an exoskeleton, there is a thin layer of skin that covers a mesodermal endoskeleton. The skin is made of tiny calcified plates and spines and forms a support system for the contained tissues. Despite robust individual skeletal modules, complete skeletons of echinoderms are rare; echinoderms disarticulate once the surrounding skin rots away. Modular construction is the result of the growth system: it adds new segments at the center of radial limbs, pushing already existing plates outward.
Echinoderms, such as sea stars and sea urchins, have an endoskeleton made of hard plates called ossicles that lie inside their bodies. Although this endoskeleton is internal, it functions similarly to an exoskeleton by providing support and protection. It allows echinoderms to control their body shape and movement, just like an exoskeleton does for other invertebrates.
No. echinoderms have no exoskeleton.Related Information:Echinoderms are deuterostomes, a group belonging to the Phylum, Chordata but separate from the vertebrates, also of this phylum. While there is a close relationship between the echinoderms and the vertebrates, echinoderms are endoskeletal invertebrates.