water vascular system

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water vascular system

a system of canals found in ECHINODERMS, that contains fluid and is open to the sea or the body cavity. It supplies fluid to the tube feet for use in locomotion.

Collins Dictionary of Biology, 3rd ed. © W. G. Hale, V. A. Saunders, J. P. Margham 2005

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The juvenile nerves follow the same pattern of development, with the formation of the ring nerve, radial nerves, and nerves associated with the tube feet and buccal podia (Hirokawa et al., 2008; Dupont et al., 2009; this study) after the development of the water vascular system (MacBride, 1907; Narasimhamurti, 1933; Olsen, 1942).

5H) and with additional parts of the water vascular system (ring canal, radial canals, stone canal, and pore canal).

Abbreviated Development of the Brooding Brittle Star Ophioplocus esmarki

Substantial numbers were also found within the water vascular system, especially in the madreporite and stone canal [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURES 1-12 OMITTED].

The water vascular system is connected indirectly to the perivisceral coelom through an opening between the upper end of the stone canal and the adjacent axial sinus [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 13 OMITTED] (cf., Jangoux and Schaltin, 1977; Bachmann and Goldschmid, 1978).

Madreporite function and fluid volume relationships in sea urchins

The valves located at the opening of the lateral canals into the tube feet also have an important function in the water vascular system of asteroids.

The functional morphology of starfish tube feet: the role of a crossed-fiber helical array in movement

Because the internal parts of the water vascular system are all small and embedded in ossicle and fibrous connective tissue, they are best studied with histological methods.

The structure and mode of function of the water vascular system of a brittlestar, Ophioderma appressum