Distinct gut microbial communities and functional predictions in divergent ophiuroid species: host differentiation, ecological niches, and adaptation to cold-water habitats [PDF]
Microbiology Spectrum, 2023 Gastrointestinal microorganisms play a crucial role in host survival and adaptation, but information on host-specific selection or environmental factors that shape the microbiome in natural populations is limited. In this study, we employed 16S rRNA gene
Yue Dong +7 more
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Having cake and eating too: The benefits of an intermediate larval form in a brittle star Amphiodia sp. opaque (Ophiuroidea) [PDF]
Ecology and Evolution, 2023 Most marine invertebrate larvae either obligately feed or depend on maternally provided reserves during planktonic development. A small number of species have the capacity to do both, in a mode of development known as facultative planktotrophy.
Nicole N. Nakata, Richard B. Emlet
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Morphological Characterization and Complete Mitochondrial Genome of a New Epizoic Hexamerous Brittle Star Gymnolophus sexradia sp. Nov [PDF]
Ecology and Evolution, Volume 16, Issue 8, August 2026.This study describes a new hexamerous epizoic brittle star species, Gymnolophus sexradia sp. nov., from the South China Sea, which lives on crinoid hosts and exhibits a six‐armed body plan possibly indicating fissiparity. Its vertebral and arm plate structures enhance horizontal flexibility for grasping the host, and phylogenetic analysis based on ...
Ziye Zhang +5 more
wiley +2 more sources
Gut Microbial Composition and Diversity in Four Ophiuroid Species: Divergence Between Suspension Feeder and Scavenger and Their Symbiotic Microbes [PDF]
Frontiers in Microbiology, 2021 Gut microbiota have important roles in the survival and adaptation of the host. Ophiuroids, as the worldwide dominant benthos, have ecological roles in benthic–pelagic coupling in the sea floor.
Yue Dong +13 more
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Earliest known ophiuroids from high palaeolatitude, southern Gondwana, recovered from the Pragian to earliest Emsian Baviaanskloof Formation (Table Mountain Group, Cape Supergroup) South Africa. [PDF]
PLoS ONE, 2023 For the first time, ophiuroids have been found in South African strata predating the lowermost Bokkeveld Group. These comprise natural moulds and casts from two localities in the 'upper unit' of the Baviaanskloof Formation (Table Mountain Group).
Caitlin Reddy +3 more
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Three-dimensional visualization as a tool for interpreting locomotion strategies in ophiuroids from the Devonian Hunsrück Slate [PDF]
Royal Society Open Science, 2020 Living brittle stars (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) employ a very different locomotion strategy to that of any other metazoan: five or more arms coordinate powerful strides for rapid movement across the ocean floor.
E. G. Clark +2 more
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Review of Ophioplinthaca Verrill, 1899 (Echinodermata, Ophiuroidea, Ophiacanthidae), description of new species in Ophioplinthaca and Ophiophthalmus, and new records from the Northwest Pacific and the South China Sea [PDF]
ZooKeys, 2022 The ophiuroid genus Ophioplinthaca is well characterized by the deep incisions in the disc. Prior to this study, it contained 32 accepted species, but species limits and geographic distributions were not well understood.
Hasitha Nethupul +2 more
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A methodological exploration to study 2D arm kinematics in Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) [PDF]
Frontiers in Zoology, 2023 Brittle stars, unlike most other echinoderms, do not use their small tube feet for locomotion but instead use their flexible arms to produce a rowing or reverse rowing movement.
Mona Goharimanesh +4 more
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On the occurrence of Astrospartus mediterraneus (Echinodermata, Gorgonocephalidae) in the Northwestern Iberian Peninsula [PDF]
PeerJThe first record of a living specimen of Astrospartus mediterraneus (Risso, 1826) in Galician waters is presented, representing a significant extension of the known northern limit for this charismatic, yet little-known, species of ophiuroid ...
Bruno Almón, Jacinto Pérez-Dieste
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New fossils of Jurassic ophiurid brittle stars (Ophiuroidea; Ophiurida) provide evidence for early clade evolution in the deep sea [PDF]
Royal Society Open Science, 2021 Understanding of the evolutionary history of the ophiuroids, or brittle stars, is hampered by a patchy knowledge of the fossil record. Especially, the stem members of the living clades are poorly known, resulting in blurry concepts of the early clade ...
Ben Thuy +2 more
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