Introducing echinoderms: a whole box of craziness
Echinoderms are the phylum that includes starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and a ludicrous number of extinct classes. Of all the animal phyla, they are the one that has perhaps diverged more from their ancestors than any other, from horrific table manners to dispensing with most of their body. They're science fiction with a liberal dose of not-very-believable satire.
This video introduces the phylum, from both a zoological and palaeontological perspective: what they are, approximately how they got there, the preservation of their fossils, and the ridiculous diversity of extinct, experimental groups.
And besides all that... they're just gorgeous fossils!
Some of the papers cited:
Formery et al. 2023 (non-formatted version): https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...
Paganos et al. 2025: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...
Zamora et al. 2012: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/art...
Also, see Rahman & Zamora (2024): https://www.annualreviews.org/docserv...
Presented by Joe Botting, independent palaeontologist and Honorary Research Fellow at the National Museum Wales.
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