Hairy Sea Cucumber
Sclerodactyla briareus
Size: to 6", larger offshore
The Sea Cucumber is not a worm, but an echinoderm, related to the starfish. If you look closely, the 5-way symmetry is still evident. Sea Cucumbers live buried in sandy or muddy bottoms less than 60 ft deep. Find them by the volcano-shaped mounds they make.
Echinoderms ( literally "spiny skins" ) are among the strangest animals on the planet. They start out as bilaterally symmetric larvae but grow into a 5-way body symmetry as adults. Some species show six, seven, or even higher levels of symmetry. Worm-like Sea Cucumbers have re-evolved a bilateral body plan over the underlying 5-way plan. Because of certain developmental traits, it is felt that despite their strangeness, echinoderms are actually more closely related to chordates than any other group.
More: Echinoderms ...
