Blastoid

Associated Smithsonian Expert: Kathy Hollis, M.S.

Kathy Hollis with Triceratops obtusus, collected in 1890 by John Bell Hatcher

Courtesy of Adrienne Block

Kathy Hollis is the collections manager in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Department of Paleobiology. As a kid she would give rocks as gifts, assuming everyone thought rocks were as cool as she did. She majored in geology at the College of Wooster in Ohio and went on to finish a master’s in geology at the Ohio State University in 2005. It was at Ohio State that Kathy realized her love for museum collections. She finished a master’s in Museum Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2008 specializing in collections care and museum-based research. Kathy has been at the Smithsonian since 2010 and helps to care for one of the largest fossil collections in the world. Her work involves getting the information about what organisms lived when and where out of the collection drawers and making it digital, accessible, and searchable online. Kathy brakes for fossil echinoderms.

Meet our associated expert

This image was obtained from the Smithsonian Institution. The image or its contents may be protected by international copyright laws.
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  • This image was obtained from the Smithsonian Institution. The image or its contents may be protected by international copyright laws.
  • This image was obtained from the Smithsonian Institution. The image or its contents may be protected by international copyright laws.
Scientific Name
Pentremites godoni
Catalog Number
55184
Formation
Beech Creek,
Number of objects in this
record: 3
Discipline
Paleobiology
Time Period
Paleozoic
Collecting Locality
North America, United States, Kentucky, Madison County, Berea
Upper Level Taxonomy
Animalia, Echinodermata, Blastoidea, Spiraculata, Pentremitidae
Region
US Southeast (NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MS, TN, KY)
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Side view of fossil blastoid (Heteroschisma alternatum)
Photo by Smithsonian Institution, Department of Paleobiology
  • Side view of fossil blastoid (Heteroschisma alternatum)
    Photo by Smithsonian Institution, Department of Paleobiology
  • Fossil blastoid (Pentremites godoni) showing holes for respiration
    Photo by Smithsonian Institution, Department of Paleobiology

About Blastoids (Class Blastoidea): Paleobiology

Blastoids (sometimes called sea buds for their shape) have a long stalk with a head at the top. They went extinct about 260 million years ago (during the Permian), but they used to be abundant on Earth. Their heyday was during the Mississipian (about 350 million years ago). They lived anchored to rocks by their stalks, feeding by filtering small food from seawater. At the top of their head is a mouth, surrounded by grooves with tiny hairs for trapping food. The structure of their stalks and heads is what left a record of their existence. The stalk is made of stacked, calcified disks. The head is made of rows of tightly interlocking, calcified plates that often remain together in the fossil record. A set of holes in the top of head are evidence of the blastoid's unusual respiratory system. Folded structures (hydrospires) were used to extract oxygen from seawater that passed through the holes.

Related Resources

Smithsonian Research on Paleobiology

The U.C. Museum of Paleontology's Introduction to Blastoids

Blastoids described by the University of Bristol

Body plans of types of fossil echinoderms
Photo by Mary Parrish, Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution
  • Body plans of types of fossil echinoderms
    Photo by Mary Parrish, Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution
  • Fossil echinoderm (Cheiropteraster gigantea) with radial symmetry
    Photo by Smithsonian Institution, Department of Paleobiology
  • Fossil echinoderm (Platycrinites portiotortuosus) from the Mississipian period
    Photo by Smithsonian Institution, Department of Paleobiology
  • Sea Cucumber in the Phiippines
    Courtesy of Dr. Dwayne Meadows, NOAA/NMFS/OPR, public domain
  • Fire Urchin Providing Cover for an Emperor Snapper Fish
    Courtesy of Bernard DUPONT, via Flickr, CC-BY-NC-SA
  • Suenson's Brittle Star from Panama
    Courtesy of Simon Coppard viaThe Echinoderms of Panama, photographer Edgardo Ochoa, CC-BY-NC-SA
  • A Feather Star from Panama
    Courtesy of Simon Coppard viaThe Echinoderms of Panama, photographer Edgardo Ochoa, CC-BY-NC-SA
  • Sea Star from Beaufort Sea, Alaska
    Courtesy of Hidden Ocean 2005 Expedition: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration, public domain

About Echinoderms (Phylum Echinodermata): Body Plan

Echinoderms stand out as the only organisms on Earth with five arms or other elements spaced evenly around a central point. This pentaradial symmetry (penta = “five;” radial = “around a central point") is obvious in some echinoderms, such as sea stars or brittle stars that have five arms. It’s more subtle on others, such as the five rows of tube feet on a sea cucumber or five grooves on a sand dollar. This unusual symmetry of adult echinoderms is not found in juveniles. In fact, echinoderm larvae have two-sided (bilateral) symmetry like humans, and must undergo a metamorphosis to become pentaradial adults. Body plans of animals during their development often say something about their ancestry. The bilateral bodies of developing echinoderms are a reminder that, aside from other back-boned animals (vertebrates), echinoderms may be our closest relatives. Unlike most living echinoderms, many fossil echinoderms did not have pentaradial symmetry.

Related Resources

Explore Echinoderms at the Encyclopedia of Life

Echinoderms on the Ocean Portal at Smithsonian

Learn About Echinoderms on the Animal Diversity Web

The Smithsonian's Invertebrate Zoology Research

Introduction to Echinoderms at the U.C. Museum of Paleontology

See what the Tree of Life says about Echinoderms