. Natural history. Zoology. C62 ECHINODERMA—CLASS HOLOTHUROIDEA. (M) at the anterior end, and the anus (As) at the posterior. The row of tube-feet passes down the middle of the under surface, between the mouth and anus. On either side of these tube-feet, and well seen in the side-view, is a row of podgy stumps, by which the animal moves as a centipede moves by its legs. Behind the anus a part of the body is prolonged into a flat tail. These animals live on the ooze of the abyssal ocean, gorging themselves therewith. Some of the holothurians that live in the sand of the deep sea, by constantly
. Natural history. Zoology. C62 ECHINODERMA—CLASS HOLOTHUROIDEA. (M) at the anterior end, and the anus (As) at the posterior. The row of tube-feet passes down the middle of the under surface, between the mouth and anus. On either side of these tube-feet, and well seen in the side-view, is a row of podgy stumps, by which the animal moves as a centipede moves by its legs. Behind the anus a part of the body is prolonged into a flat tail. These animals live on the ooze of the abyssal ocean, gorging themselves therewith. Some of the holothurians that live in the sand of the deep sea, by constantly keeping both mouth and anus above the surface of the mud, have had their bodies curved in U-fashion, and in one genus the two openings have come to lie close together at the top of a thick stalk, so that one may compare the animal to a conjuror's bottle with a divided mouth. A yet stranger modification of the holothurian type is the beautiful Pelagothuria, represented in Fig. 12 ; this lives in the East Pacific on the surface of the ocean. It has no calcareous spicules, and the longitudinal muscles are mostly changed into a jelly tissue. Around the mouth is a circlet of short tentacles (T); and from these radiate thirteen to sixteen long feelers (R), the bases of which are united by a web forming a disc, by which the animal swims in much the same way as a floating jellyfish. The rest of the body, with the anus (As) at the end of it, hangs vertically downwards. In life the semi-transparent body is tinged a purplish red. Holothurians are of interest to men, especially Chinamen, as furnishing a food known as Trepang, which ranks with edible birds' nests among the delicacies of the celes- tial table. The fishing for this takes place in the East Indies and along the Barrier Reef of Australia. Only those species that have few calcareous spicules are of value for this purpose, while others are rejected because, when caught, they get rid of all their Ckinoidea (Sea-lilies).
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Keywords: ., bookauthorly, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology
