SEA STAR

Digestion and excretion

Starfish digestion is carried out in two stomachs: the cardiac stomach and the pyloric
stomach. The cardiac stomach is a sack like stomach located at the center of the body
and may be everted out of the organism's body to engulf and digest food. Some
species are able to use their water vascular systems to force open the shells of bivalve
mollusks such as clams and mussels by injecting their stomachs into the shells. With
the stomach inserted inside the shell, the starfish is able to digest the mollusk in place.
The cardiac stomach is then brought back inside the body, and the partially digested
food is moved to the pyloric stomach. Further digestion occurs in the intestine. Waste
is either excreted through the anus on the aboral side of the body, or excreted through
the mouth if the anus is absent as in brittle stars.

Because of this ability to digest food outside of its body, the sea star is able to hunt
prey that are much larger than its mouth would otherwise allow, including arthropods,
small fish, and mollusks.

Some echinoderms live several weeks without food under artificial conditions. It is
believed that they may receive some nutrients from organic material dissolved in
seawater.

Sea stars and other echinoderms have endoskeletons, suggesting that echinoderms are
very closely related to chordates; animals with a hollow nerve chord that usually have
vertebrae.

INSECTS AND SPIDERS

Uniquely among chelicerates, the final sections of spiders' chelicerae are fangs, and the great
majority of spiders can use them to inject venom into prey from venom glands in the roots of
the chelicerae.[7] Like most arachnids includingscorpions,[8] spiders have a narrow gut that can
only cope with liquid food and spiders have two sets of filters to keep solids out.[7] They use
one of two different systems of external digestion. Some pump digestive enzymes from the
midgut into the prey and then suck the liquified tissues of the prey into the gut, eventually
leaving behind the empty husk of the prey. Others grind the prey to pulp using the chelicerae
and the bases of the pedipalps, while flooding it with enzymes; in these species the
chelicerae and the bases of the pedipalps form a preoral cavity that holds the food they are
processing.[7]

The stomach in the cephalothorax acts as a pump that sends the food deeper into the
digestive system. The mid gut bears many digestivececa, compartments with no other exit,
that extract nutrients from the food; most are in the abdomen, which is dominated by the
digestive system, but a few are found in the cephalothorax.[7]
Most spiders convert nitrogenous waste products into uric acid, which can be excreted as a
dry material. Malphigian tubules ("little tubes") extract these wastes from the blood in the
hemocoel and dump them into the cloacal chamber, from which they are expelled through
theanus.[7] Production of uric acid and its removal via Malphigian tubules are a water-
conserving feature that has evolved independently in severalarthropod lineages that can live
far away from water,[13] for example the tubules of insects and arachnids develop from
completely different parts of the embryo.[8] However a few primitive spiders, the sub-
order Mesothelae and infra-order Mygalomorphae, retain the ancestral
arthropod nephridia ("little kidneys"),[7] which use large amounts of water to excrete
nitrogenous waste products as ammonia.[13]

SHELLFISH

Digestive system

The mouth of a starfish is located on the underside of the body, and opens
through a short esophagus into firstly a cardiac stomach, and then, a second,
pyloric stomach. Each arm also contains two pyloric caeca, long hollow
tubes branching outwards from the pyloric stomach. Each pyloric caecum is
lined by a series of digestive glands, which secrete digestive enzymes and
absorb nutrients from the food. A short intestine runs from the upper surface
of the pyloric stomach to open at an anus in the center of the upper body.[10]

Many sea stars, such as Astropecten and Luidia swallow their prey whole,
and start to digest it in the stomachs before passing it into the pyloric caeca.
[10]
However, in a great many species, the cardiac stomach can be everted out
of the organism's body to engulf and digest food. In these species, the
cardiac stomach fetches the prey then passes it to the pyloric stomach, which
always remains internal.[11]

Some species are able to use their water vascular systems to force open the
shells of bivalve molluscs such as clams and mussels by injecting their
stomachs into the shells. With the stomach inserted inside the shell, the sea
star is able to digest the mollusc in place. The cardiac stomach is then
brought back inside the body, and the partially digested food is moved to the
pyloric stomach.[12] Further digestion occurs in the intestine. Waste is
excreted through the anus on the aboral side of the body.[13]

Because of this ability to digest food outside of its body, the sea star is able
to hunt prey that are much larger than its mouth would otherwise allow,
such as clams and oysters, arthropods, small fish, and mollusks. However,
some species are not pure carnivores, and may supplement their diet
with algae or organic detritus. Some of these species are grazers, but others
trap food particles from the water in sticky mucus strands that can be swept
towards the mouth along ciliated grooves.[10]

Some echinoderms can live for several weeks without food under artificial
conditions. Scientists believe that they may receive some nutrients from
organic material dissolved in seawater.
SEA STAR - Starfish digestion is carried out in
two stomachs: the cardiac stomach and the
pyloric stomach. Digestion occurs in the
intestine. Waste is either excreted through the
anus on the aboral side of the body, or excreted
through the mouth if the anus is absent as in
brittle stars. Digest food outside of its body.

INSECTS AND SPIDERS - spiders have a

narrow gut that can only cope with liquid food
and spiders have two sets of filters to keep
solids out. They use one of two different
systems of external digestion. Some pump
digestive enzymes from the midgut into the prey
and then suck the liquified tissues of the prey
into the gut, eventually leaving behind the empty
husk of the prey. Others grind the prey to pulp
using the chelicerae and the bases of
the pedipalps, while flooding it with enzymes; in
these species the chelicerae and the bases of
the pedipalps form a preoral cavity that holds the
food they are processing.

SHELLFISH - Many sea stars, such

as Astropecten and Luidia swallow their prey
whole, and start to digest it in the stomachs
before passing it into the pyloric caeca.
However, in a great many species, the cardiac
stomach can be everted out of the organism's
body to engulf and digest food. In these species,
the cardiac stomach fetches the prey then
passes it to the pyloric stomach, which always
remains internal.