Fine structure of the cirri and a possible mechanism for their motility in stalkless crinoids (Echinodermata).

Crinoid cirri are jointed appendages that can slowly bend and straighten. The structures causing each cirrus to move have not been identified unequivocally by light microscopy; therefore, we examined them by electron microscopy. No muscle cells were found, but a probable contractile apparatus was demonstrated in the cytoplasm of epithelial cells lining the oral and aboral coeloms running the length of the cirrus. The presumed contractile apparatus is a bundle of 5 nm filaments oriented parallel to each other and to the long axis of the appendage. We have proposed that contractile shortening of the coelomic epithelia bends the cirrus in an aboral direction, since the fulcral articulations of the skeletal ossicles are oral to the contractile tissue; this active bending is presumably opposed by an elasticity of the oral ligaments, which seem to straighten the cirrus. It is possible that ligaments of the cirrus may undergo neurosecretion-mediated changes in consistency that could lock the appendage into a rigid state; however, active contraction by the ligaments appears unlikely.