What makes Ecdysozoa unique?

The most distinguishing and prominent feature of Ecdysozoans is their cuticle: a tough, but flexible exoskeleton that protects these animals from water loss, predators, and other aspects of the external environment. All members of this superphylum periodically molt or shed their cuticle as they grow.

Are starfish Ecdysozoa?

SUBPHYLUM Asterozoa (free-moving echinoderms with flattened, star-shaped bodies): CLASS Asteroidea (sea stars, also called starfish) These familiar sea creatures are predators that move about with five radial arms. The arms touch one another at their base of attachment to the central disk.

What are Lophotrochozoans and Ecdysozoans?

What is the difference between Lophotrochozoa and Ecdysozoa? • Ecdysozoans have the ability to shed their exoskeleton several times throughout their life span, whereas lophotrochozoan are the animals who possess a trochophore larvae and a feeding structure called lophophore.

Are annelids Ecdysozoa?

Nielsen has suggested that a possible solution is to regard Ecdysozoa as a sister-group of Annelida, though later considered them unrelated.

Are flatworms Ecdysozoa?

Flatworms are acoelomate, triploblastic animals. They lack circulatory and respiratory systems, and have a rudimentary excretory system. Cestodes, or tapeworms, infect the digestive systems of primary vertebrate hosts. Nematodes are pseudocoelomate members of the clade Ecdysozoa.

Is Ecdysozoa a Cnidaria?

Lophotrochozoa and Ecdysozoa are both Bilataria. Acoela and Cnidaria both possess radial symmetry. Arthropods are more closely related to nematodes than they are to annelids.

Are spiders Ecdysozoa?

Many ecdysozoan phyla have a pseudocoel, but the arthropods have a true coelom of the schizocoel type. Major groups of arthropods include the extinct trilobites, the largely aquatic Crustacea, the chelicerate groups (spiders, mites, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, etc.), the centipedes, the millipedes, and the insects.