Indonesia Photo gallery: Diving Komodo National Park

Echinoderms are marine animals that have a hard internal skeleton composed of small calcareous plates (ossicles). They have five bodies segments of equal size arranged around a central axis.

Sea stars typically have five arms which widen from tip to base, where they merge into a central disc. Broken arms can be regenerated.

[unidentified sea star]

cushion star, Culcita novaeguineae

blue sea star, Linckia laevigata

granular sea star, Choriaster granulatus

multipore sea star, Linckia multifora

[unidentified sea star]

Luzon sea star, Echinaster luzonicus

peppermint sea star, Fromia monilis

[unidentified sea star]

old club sea star, Mithrodia clavigera

bumpy sea star, Gomophia gomophia

[unidentified sea star]

Basket stars have five arms that repeatedly subdivide into many branches. The arms are spred at night to catch zooplankton.

giant basket star, Astroboa nuda

Brittle stars have a small central disk and five arms with numerous spines arranged in rows. The arms can be regenerated.

dark red-spined brittle star, Ophiothrix purpurea

[unidentified brittle star]

Crinoids (feather stars) are the most ancient echinoderms. They have small, flattened, pentagon-shaped bodies that immediately fork, giving them a multiple of five arms which resemble feathers. Some are able to swim with coordinated arm movements. Most walk slowly on jointed legs (cirri). Most are hard to identify in the field.

very spiny feather star, Colobometra perspinosa

Bennett's feather star, Oxycomanthus bennetti

[unidentified criniods]

many-rayed feather star, Capillaster multiradiatus

[unidentified crinoids]

Schlegel's feather star, Comaster schlegelii

[unidentified crinoids]

Sea cucumbers have long, thick, cylindrical bodies with a mouth at the front and an anus at the rear. The five-fold internal symmetry shared by all echonoderms is not obvious in a living sea cucumber.

amberfish sea cucumber, Thelenota anax