Just behind the tentacles is a group of small ossicles, calcareous stiffening plates, forming a short tube surrounding the pharynx.

The skin is thick and leathery and the tube feet are scattered rather than being in orderly rows, protruding as soft finger-like projections from the body wall.

[3] The minute calcareous spicules that are embedded in the skin are characteristic for the species, being square or round and table-shaped with spires formed of four pillars.

[5] 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.

[5][3] Sclerodactyla briareus is a scavenger and filter feeder, collecting organic matter with its feeding tentacles and thrusting the particles into its mouth.