Classification for a starfish

Answer 1

Starfish have got absolutely nothing to do with fish. Their name originates from antiquity, when everything living in water was called a fish, whatever it looked like. In those days, little was known about classes of life, and that is why many totally unrelated creatures are called fish, such as jellyfish (cnidarians) starfish, and even headless chicken fish, a popular name given to a deep water sea cucumber (coincidentally one of the sea star's closest relatives).

Starfish are now officially known as sea stars.

They are echinoderms. Echinoderms are a totally unrelated to fish. They are a huge group. Their members include sea stars, sea cucumbers, brittlestars, sea urchins and crinoids. The group is actually a phylum of its own, on the same rank as chordata, which are basically vertebrates and a few other creatures. In other words, the echinoderm group is the same rank as the group containing all mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish and many others.

Echinoderms are the only group of animals which have radial symetry, in other words, more than a single symmetry. Common sea stars have fivefold symmetry, meaning five different divisions, but some other echinoderms can have fewer or many more symetries. Characteristic of many echinoderms are their tube feet. They come in their hundreds, and each moves indepentantly, carrying the echinoderm along. In starfish, these tube feet are present on the underside beneath the arms. In urchins, they are below the rounded body, pretty much the only place with an absence of spines. In sea cucumbers, they are on the underside of the body. Brittlestars and basket stars do not have tube feet. Instead they use their arms for locomotion. They are also the only echinoderms capable of free swimming. Crinoids are have no tube feet, and most are either carried by currenty or are attached to the rock. These have been known ot move, however.

Echinoderms are one of the few phyla which have no representatives living on land or in fresh water. They rely on the seawater for everything, even using it as their blood.

Sea stars have their own class within the echinoderms: Asteroidea.

Here is the classification of the most well known of starfish, the common sea star.

Kingdom:

Animalia (All animals)Phylum:Echinodermata (Echinoderms)Class:Asteroidea (All starfish)Order:ForcipulatidaFamily:AsteriidaeGenus:AsteriasSpecies:Asterias rubens

Answer 2

Superdomain Biota

Domain Eukaryota

Kingdom Animalia

Subkingdom Bilateria

Branch Deuterostomia

Infrakingdom Coelomopora

Phylum Echinodermata

Subphylum Eleutherozoa

Infraphylum Asterozoa

Class Asteroidea

Answer 3

Starfish are very unusual creatures in that they are half fish and half star. It is unknown how the first starfish came to be, as it seems the mating between a fish and a star would have less than favorable results, and the natural habitat of both of these creatures are lightyears apart. So we must simply mark it up as another miracle of mother nature and not ask too many questions.

Answer 4

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Echinodermata

Class: Stelleroidea

Answer 5

A starfish is classified in Echnioderms or Molluscs

Answer 6

by its color

Answer 7

Echnioderms or Molluscs

Answer 8

a fish

Answer 9

fish