They don’t use large muscles working on large body parts like many other animals. Instead they move, feed and breathe with a unique water-vascular system ending in hundreds of water-filled tube feet.

Answer:The primary difference between arthropods and echinoderms is their covering. Arthropods have a tough, non-living outer shell called exoskeleton, which protect their soft bodies while echinoderms have living endoskeletons, which develop within the deeper skin or body tissues and act as their protective covering.

Arthropod and echinoderm skeletons are very similar. Sea stars can stick their stomachs out through their mouths to aid feeding. Early embryological features, such as the fate of the blastopore, can be the basis for major divisions in categorizing animals. In sea cucumbers, tube feet are modified into tentacles.

The distinguishing feature of arthropods is the presence of a jointed skeletal covering composed of chitin (a complex sugar) bound to protein. The body is usually segmented, and the segments bear paired jointed appendages, from which the name arthropod (“jointed feet”) is derived.

A variety of marine worms (Annelida and Protoannelida) lived in the ocean sediments during the Cambrian period. These creatures were bilaterally symmetrical, soft-bodied, and multisegmented. They had no distinct head capsule and lacked both eyes and antennae.

5 Characteristics of an Arthropod

1. Exoskeleton. Arthropods are invertebrates, which means their bodies do not have internal bones for support.
2. Segmented Bodies. Arthropods have bodies that are internally and externally segmented.
3. Jointed Appendages.
4. Bilateral Symmetry.
5. Open Circulatory System.

Arthropods are unusual among invertebrates; they lack locomotory cilia, even as larvae. Most arthropods move by means of their segmental appendages, and the exoskeleton and the muscles, which attach to the inside of the skeleton, act together as a lever system, as is also true in vertebrates.

An arthropod is an animal with no internal spine, a body made of joined segments, and a hard covering, like a shell. The Modern Latin root is Arthropoda, which is also the name of the animals’ phylum, and which means “those with jointed feet.”

An arthropod regularly sheds its exoskeleton to grow. The incredible diversity and success of the arthropods is because of their very adaptable body plan. The evolution of many types of appendages—antennae, claws, wings, and mouthparts— allowed arthropods to occupy nearly every niche and habitat on earth.

Arthropods are beneficial for other foods that humans eat, especially through the pollination of crops. More than 100 food crops are pollinated by arthropods on a yearly basis. On the flip side of this, humans themselves are a food source for arthropods like mosquitoes, biting flies, fleas, and ticks.

Insecta

Class Insecta is the largest class in the phylum Arthropoda, and their diversity is unmatched in the animal kingdom. Flight evolved independently in this group (what other types of animals can fly?) and is thought to be one factor in the dramatic success of the insects.

Arthropoda