Hard-Fingered Sea Cucumber

Sclerodactyla briareus is an elongated oval or cigar-shaped sea cucumber and grows to about 15 centimetres (5.9 in). It often adopts a characteristic pose with both ends raised above the substrate. At the anterior end there is a mouth surrounded by a ring of ten, short, branched feeding tentacles. These are modified tube feet that can be retracted back into the mouth when the animal is not feeding. The surface of the body is divided into five ambulacral areas with five shallow interambulacral grooves in between. Internally there are five bands of muscle running along the ambulacrae and there are also transverse bands of muscles. Just behind the tentacles is a group of small ossicles, calcareous stiffening plates, forming a short tube surrounding the pharynx. These provide a skeletal support for the muscles and internal organs.

Sclerodactyla briareus is found in shallow water along the east coast of the United States from Massachusetts to Florida, plus the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and extending southward as far as Venezuela.