Do regular sea urchins show preference in which part of the body they orient forward in their walk?
Yoshimura, K.; Iketani, T.; Motokawa, T. (2012). Do regular sea urchins show preference in which part of the body they orient forward in their walk? Mar. Biol. (Berl.) 159(5): 959-965. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00227-011-1874-5
In: Marine Biology: International Journal on Life in Oceans and Coastal Waters. Springer: Heidelberg; Berlin. ISSN 0025-3162; e-ISSN 1432-1793, meer
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| Auteurs | | Top |
- Yoshimura, K.
- Iketani, T.
- Motokawa, T.
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| Abstract |
Regular sea urchins, which have pentaradial symmetry, have been believed to show no preference in which part of the body forward they proceed with. Through use of circular statistics, we show that the regular sea urchin Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus had no preference with respect to what body part, as determined by Lovén’s system, should be anterior in locomotion. The sea urchins, however, preferably proceeded with the body part, which had contacted with the aquarium walls at rest, forward. When the contact part was artificially altered, the body part facing forward in the following proceeding changed accordingly: the animals walked with the part that had contacted last forward. The biological significance of this behavior was discussed in relation to the aggregation formation and homing behavior. |
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