Common Echinoderms of the shore

Common echinoderms of the shore:

Echinoderms have a hard exterior or spicules and include starfish, seaurchins and seacucumbers.   When the tide is out the best place to look for echinoderms are under boulders in rock pools.

Below are images of the common species of echinoderm you may encounter whilst rock pooling in the UK:

A Common starfish (Asterias rubens) washed up on the shore. Common starfish are orange with five arms of equal proportion and lines running down the arm mid line.

Asterias rubens on under side of a boulder.

A young Seven armed stafish (Luidia ciliaris) in a rock pool of the lower shore. As their name suggests these are the only starfish to have seven arms.

Luidia ciliaris

The Spiny starfish (Marthasterias glacialis)

The Spiny starfish (Marthasterias glacialis) has a thorny appearance from which it gets its name.

The Common sunstar (Crossaster papposus) has many arms that 
radiate like a sun.

Bloody Henry Starfish (Henricia oculata)

Cushion star (Asterina gibbosa) - a squat starfish usually found under stones and boulders in rock pools.

Asterina phylactica is a squat starfish with red pigment.

A brittlestar (Ophiothrix fragilis)

Ophiothrix fragilis

A black brittle star (Ophiocomina nigra)

Smaller brittlestars (Ophiuroidea) can be difficult to identify in the field.

A featherstar (Antedon bifida)

A green seaurchin (Psammechinus miliaris) 

A green seaurchin (Psammechinus miliaris)

The remains of a sea urchin (Echinus esculentus)

A heart urchin (Echinocardium cordatum). Usually it would buried in the sand.

A seacucumber (Holothurian) appears soft but has many spicules in its skin making it an echinoderm.