Abstract
Hyman (1955) saluted the echinoderms as “a noble group especially designed to puzzle the zoologist”, but larval transfer offers solutions to many of the puzzles. The Echinodermata provide many striking examples of inconsistencies between the apparent relationships of adults and larvae. There are paradoxes in the shapes and symmetries of adults and larvae, in the affinities of the phylum to other phyla, in the phytogeny of classes within the phylum, and in the classification of some species. I hope to show that these inconsistencies may be resolved by the proposal that the original echinoderm larva was transferred from another phylum, and that this transfer was followed by more within the Echinodermata. Before this, however, let us consider what the animals are like, both as adults and larvae.
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© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Williamson, D.I. (2003). Echinoderms: Adults and Larvae. In: The Origins of Larvae. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0357-4_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0357-4_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-6377-9
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