Echinodermata · echinoderms
Sea pig
Scotoplanes globosa
Elpidiidae · sea pigsIUCN: Not evaluated
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A plump deep-sea cucumber that walks on tube-foot legs.
Fun factSea pigs gather in herds of hundreds on the abyssal plain.
- Waters
- Worldwide
- Depth zone
- Deep sea & continental slope
- Diet
- Organic matter in sediment
- Size
- Up to 15 cm
Classification
Echinodermata › Holothuroidea › Elpidiidae
- Kingdom Animalia animals
- Many-celled organisms that eat other living things for energy (heterotrophs)
- Cells have no cell walls
- Most can move at some stage of life
- Clade Bilateria bilateral animals
- Body has a left and right side that mirror each other (bilateral symmetry)
- Head end with concentrated nerves; three tissue layers
- Includes about 99% of all living animal species
- Clade Deuterostomia deuterostomes
- In the embryo, the first opening becomes the anus and the mouth forms second
- Includes echinoderms and chordates
- Phylum Echinodermata echinoderms
- Adults usually have five-part radial symmetry
- Water-vascular system powers tiny tube feet
- Skeleton of limestone plates (ossicles) in the skin
- Class Holothuroidea sea cucumbers
- Sea cucumbers: soft, sausage-shaped bodies with skeleton reduced to tiny plates
- Ring of feeding tentacles around the mouth
- Many can throw out their guts to defend themselves
- Family Elpidiidae sea pigs
- Sea pigs: deep-sea cucumbers that walk on enlarged tube feet
- Genus Scotoplanes
- Species in the same genus are very close relatives and often look alike.
- Species Scotoplanes globosa Sea pig
Closest relatives in the guide
- Headless chicken monster Enypniastes eximia same class
- Orange-footed sea cucumber Cucumaria frondosa same class