Dendrochirotida

Authority, Date

7 families; 89 genera, 32 monotypic; 553 species

Tube feet present; tentacles tree shaped, tentacle ampullae absent or small. Retractor muscles present. Respiratory trees present, sometimes connected to alimentary canal with a rete mirabile. Stone canal hanging free in the body cavity. Mesentery of the posterior intestinal loop in left or right ventral interradius. Gonads on both sides of the dorsal mesentery. Usually no Cuvierian organs. Deposits usually more or less irregular, fenestrated plates sometimes tables. (Mortensen, 1927)

Tentacles 10-30 in number, richly branched. Calcareous ring simple, or with complex posterior processes. Test sometimes well developed, or reduced to non-contiguous calcareous spicules. (Pawson & Fell, 1965)