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    28 Water Vascular System of Asterias

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    Water vascular system

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    28 Water Vascular System of Asterias

    Uploaded by

    harinarayanpatra4
    17 views3 pages
    Water vascular system

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    28_Water_vascular_system_of_Asterias

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    Water vascular system

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    17 views3 pages

    28 Water Vascular System of Asterias

    Uploaded by

    harinarayanpatra4
    Water vascular system

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
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    Water vascular system of Asterias

    BSc. Part I Zoology (Subsidiary)

    Water Vascular System of Asterias:

    The water vascular system is a modified part of coelom and it consists of a system of sea- water
    filled canals having certain corpuscles. It plays most vital role in the locomotion of the animal
    and comprises madreporite, stone canal, ring canal, radial canal, Tiedeman’s bodies, lateral
    canals, and tube feet.

    (i) Madreporite:

    As already stated, the madreporite is a rounded calcareous plate occurring on the aboral surface
    of the central disc in inter-radial position. Its surface bears a number of radiating, narrow,
    straight or wavy grooves or furrows. Each furrow contains many minute pores at its bottom.

    Each pore leads into a very short, fine, tubular pore canal which passes inward in the substance
    of the madreporite. There may be about 200 pores and pore-canals. The pore-canals unite to
    form the collecting canals which open into an ampulla beneath the madreporite.
    (ii) Stone Canal:

    The ampulla opens into a S-shaped stone canal. The stone canal extends downwards (orally)
    and opens into a ring canal, around the mouth. The walls of stone canal are supported by a
    series of calcareous rings. The lumen of stone canal is lined by very tall flagellated cells.

    In embryonic stages and in young Asterias, the stone canal remains a simple tube but in adult
    Asterias, lumen of stone canal possesses a prominent ridge with two spirally rolled lamellae
    which by branching become more complicated in structure. During its course, the stone canal is
    en-sheathed by a wide, thin-walled tubular coelomic sac, called axial sinus.

    (iii) Ring Canal:

    The ring canal or water ring is located to the inner side of the peristomial ring of ossicles and
    directly above (aboral) to the hypo neural ring sinus. It is wide and pentagonal or five sided.

    (iv) Tiedemann’s Bodies:

    The ring canal gives out inter-radially nine small, yellowish, irregular or rounded glandular
    bodies called racemose or Tiedemann’s bodies, from its inner margins. The Tiedemann’s bodies
    rest upon the peristomial ring of ossicles. The actual function of Tiedemann’s bodies is still
    unknown, however, they are supposed to be lymphatic glands to manufacture the amoebocytes
    of the water vascular system.
    (v) Polian Vesicles:

    The ring canal gives off on its inner side in the inter-radial position one, two or four, little, pear-
    shaped, thin-walled, contractile bladders or reservoirs with long necks called polian vesicles.
    They are supposed to regulate pressure inside ambulacral system and to manufacture amoeboid
    cells of ambulacral system.

    (vi) Radial Canal:

    From its outer surface the ring canal gives off a radial water canal into each arm that runs
    throughout the length of the arm and terminates as the lumen of terminal tentacle. In the arm the
    radial water canal runs immediately to the oral side of the ambulacral muscles.

    (vii) Lateral Canals:

    In each arm, the radial canal gives out two series of short, narrow, transverse branches called
    lateral or podial canals. Each lateral canal is attached to the base of a tube foot and is provided
    with a valve to prevent backward flow of fluid into the radial canal.

    (viii) Tube Feet:

    As already mentioned, there are four rows of tube feet in each ambulacral groove. A tube foot
    or podium is a hollow, elastic, thin-walled, closed cylinder or sac-like structure having an upper
    sac-like ampulla, a middle tubular podium and a lower disc-like sucker.

    The ampulla lies within the arm, projecting into the coelom above the ambulacral pore which is
    a gap between the adjacent ambulacral ossicles for the passage of the podium. The tube feet are
    chief locomotory and respiratory organs of Asterias.

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