### animal | echinoderm:

Sea cucumber
* Many sea cucumbers are deposit feeders
  - poisonous
  - quite poisonous
* Most sea cucumbers are scavengers
  - breathe by means of respiratory tubes called trees
  - have types
* Some sea cucumbers are able to secrete long and sticky Cuvierian tubules
  - wormlike, lacking tube- feet and respiratory trees
* Some sea cucumbers belong to genus
  - taxonomic genus
* Some sea cucumbers burrow in the sediment, and digest what is edible, excreting the rest
  - into the sea floor
  - can secrete a sticky glue-like substance as a defense mechanism
* Some sea cucumbers have anatomies
  - appendages
  - flexible structures
  - nerves
* Some sea cucumbers have radial nerves
  - symmetry
  - sex
  - tentacles
* Some sea cucumbers secrete a very sticky substance as a defense mechanism
  - sticky substances
  * ' are a class of echinoderms, the 'Holothuroidea'. They have a longish body, and leathery skin. Sea cucumbers live on the floor of the ocean. Most sea cucumbers are scavengers. There are about 1500 species of sea cucumbers. Sea cucumbers have a unique respiratory system, and effective defences against predators. Chinese eat them
* are able to modulate the shape of their body when needed
  - also distinct as echinoderms in having a circlet of oral tentacles
  - an Oriental delicacy, supporting a multi-million dollar seafood industry
  - considered halal
  - detritus feeders, so their poop consists mostly of sand
  - echinoderms with elongated, spiny-skinned bodies
  - found in mostly shallow water but sometimes in deep water of all oceans
  - located in water
  - marine animals related to starfish and are most commonly traded in dried form
  - mostly scavengers that feed on debris in the benthic zone of the ocean
  - prey to many predators such as sea turtles, crustaceans, many fish, and people
  - soft bodied marine animals shaped like a common-garden cucumber
  - soft-bodied and wormlike, with a cluster of tentacles around the mouth at one end
  - sometimes dominant, for example
  - suspension, or detritus, feeders
  - unique among echinoderms in giving up the radial pattern after acquiring it
  - used in Asia as a base for soups
  - usually somewhat football shaped and lay on their side on the bottom
* belong to a sub-category of echinoderms called holothuroidea
  - the group of animals called echinoderms
* breathe via their anus.
* can breed sexually or asexually
  - live up to eight years
* communicate with each other by sending hormone signals through the water.
* eat decaying matter that floats in the water or is in the sand.
* eat plankton and detritus
  - other organic matter
* feed by snaring plankton in the mucus coating on their tentacles.
* get their common name from their resemblance to cucumbers.
* have a cylindrical, rubbery body with a reduced endoskeleton and no arms
  - unique respiratory system , and effective defences against predators
  - between ten and thirty such tentacles , depending on the species
  - five rows of paired tentacles on the surface of the body
  - no brain
  - separate sexes and spawning occurs from spring through summer
* irritate the skin without producing a true toxin.
* is an echinoderm
* lack spines, and the hard endoskeleton is much reduced.
* live on or under rocks and in or on sand and mud
* move by means of tube feet, which extend in rows from the underside of the body.
* play important role in cleansing of the nature by removing remains of dead animals.
* recycle food particles into fodder for bacteria much like worms do in soil.
* sit on the ocean floor where they process and filter waste.
* spawn by releasing eggs and sperm into the water, where the eggs are fertilized.
* spread feeding tentacles out of caves.
+ Sea cucumber, Overview, Feeding
  * Highly modified tube feet around the mouth are always present. These are  branched and retractile tentacles, much larger than the regular tube feet. Sea cucumbers have between ten and thirty such tentacles, depending on the species. There is a ring of larger ossicles round the mouth and oesophagus to which the muscles of the tube feet are attached. With their sticky tentacles the animal collects detritus and small organisms
  - Overview: Echinoderms