Courtesy of a 4 year old’s curiosity at the Aquarium yesterday comes the word of the day:
- Madreporite — măd-rә-pôr-īt
- A perforated plate in echinoderms (including starfish, sea cucumbers and urchins) through which water is filtered and admitted to the animal’s water vascular system — essentially a hydraulic system to control their feet. You can see the madreporite of the short-spined sea star, Pisaster brevispinus at the BioMedia Galleries. The term madreporite is a derivative of Madreporaria, the order (hard corals) which brain corals belong to. The madreporite of many sea stars resembles brain corals in miniature.
