title: Reproduction: widespread cloning in echinoderm larvae.
abstract: Asexual reproduction by free-living invertebrate larvae is a rare and enigmatic phenomenon and, although it is known to occur in sea stars and brittle stars, it has not been detected in other echinoderms despite more than a century of intensive study. Here we describe spontaneous larval cloning in three species from two more echinoderm classes: a sea cucumber (Holothuroidea), a sand dollar and a sea urchin (Echinoidea). Larval cloning may therefore be an ancient ability of echinoderms and possibly of deutero-stomes - the group that includes echinoderms, acorn worms, sea squirts and vertebrates.
authors.affiliation: Physiology and Cell Biology Group, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada. aeaves@ualberta.ca
authors.forename: Alexandra A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Eaves
authors.forename: A Richard
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Palmer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004447:Echinodermata / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D007814:Larva / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D012100:Reproduction, Asexual / Q000502:physiology*; D012616:Sea Cucumbers / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology; D012617:Sea Urchins / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology