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Cystoidea (Cystoids)

      The Cystoidea or cystoids, are extinct echinoderms that lived attached to the sea floor by stalks, and are distinguished from other echinoderms by triangular pore openings. Superficially, the cystoids resembled crinoids, but they had an ovoid, rather than cup-shaped, body. The mouth was at the upper pole of the body, with the opposite end attached to the substratum, often by a stalk, although some stalkless species did exist. The anus lay on the side of the body. Five, or less commonly three, ambulacral areas ran along the outside of the body, radiating outwards from the mouth. A number of small tentacles either surrounded the mouth, or projected outwards in a row from the ambulacral areas, depending on species. The most distinctive feature of cystoids was the presence of a number of pores in the rigid skeleton encasing the body. These were most likely respiratory in nature, allowing fluid to flow in or out of the body. In some species, the pores were clustered in distinct regions, but in others they were distributed quite widely over the body surface.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cystoids
cystoidea
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Echinosphaerites infaustus Barrande, 1887 JP1355
Echinosphaerites infaustus Barrande, 1887 KP626
Echinosphaerites infaustus Barrande, 1887 JP1361
Echinosphaerites infaustus Barrande, 1887 KP548
Echinosphaerites infaustus Barrande, 1887 OZ239
Echinosphaerites infaustus Barrande, 1887 JP1083
Echinosphaerites infaustus Barrande, 1887 RP156
Echinosphaerites infaustus Barrande, 1887 JH1092
Echinosphaerites infaustus Barrande, 1887 OZ238
Echinosphaerites infaustus Barrande, 1887 JP1165
Echinosphaerites infaustus Barrande, 1887 KP240
Echinosphaerites infaustus Barrande, 1887 VH5052
EchinosphaeritesAD, Štorch a Mergl (1989) MM201
Echinosphaerites RP103
Echinosphaerites VH5114
Echinosphaerites XB808
Echinosphaerites XB792
Echinosphaerites RP100
Echinosphaerites RP104
Echinosphaerites RP99

Virtual museum of the Czech Geological Survey, www.geology.cz, (C) Czech Geological Survey, 2011, v.0.99 [13.12.2011]