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Echinoderms of Zihuatanejo

PHYLUM ECHINODERMATA

-Animals (Kingdom Animalia)

-Echinoderms (Phylum Echinodermata)

-Sea Urchins and Sea Cucumbers (Subphylum Echinozoa)

-Sea Cucumbers (Class Holothuroidea)

-Subclass (Actinopoda)

-Order Synallactida

-Family Stichopodidae

-Genus Isostichopus

-Brown Sea Cucumber (Isostichopus fuscus)


The Brown Sea Cucumber (Isostichopus fuscus) is a species of sea cucumber found in the eastern Pacific Ocean, particularly along the coasts of Mexico, Central America, Ecuador, and the Galápagos Islands. It plays a crucial ecological role as a detritivore, helping to recycle nutrients in marine ecosystems. Found in rocky reefs and sandy bottoms at depths of 2–40 meters.

Diet

  • Deposit feeder that consumes fine sediment and extracts organic detritus, microorganisms, and other organic particles from it with its oral tentacles.

Range

  • Tropical eastern Pacific, known from Mexico and Panama south to Colombia.

  • It occurs along the Mexican Pacific coast, including Guerrero, and is found in Zihuatanejo Bay.

Habitat

  • Primarily associated with rocky bottoms and reefs from the intertidal zone to about 15 metres.

  • Individuals can occur attached beneath rocks or among rocky reef structure.

  • In Zihuatanejo, it occurs on shallow rocky reef habitat.

Description

  • Medium-sized sea cucumber with a relatively short, stout, cylindrical body that tapers towards the rear.

  • Usually olive-green, with conspicuous white to orange papillae, tube feet, and feeding tentacles.

  • Has 20 large, shield-shaped oral tentacles with deep indentations.

  • Dorsal surface has scattered, long, slender papillae, while the underside is densely covered with large, thick tube feet.

Brown Sea Cucumber

Isostichopus fuscus

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