海參科的成員有厚厚的肉質身體和幾排管足（英语：tube feet），用於四處移動和黏附在表面上。身體通常覆蓋著稱為乳突的鈍突起。本科許多成員都能夠噴射出大量被稱為居維氏管（英语：cuvierian tubules）的細線來分散捕食者的注意力，甚至將它們的內臟翻過[3] 來。 For the taxonomic determination, the genera Actinopyga and Bohadschia have their spicules exclusively shaped like sticks, and the genera Holothuria and Labidodemas never have theirs shaped like tables. Actinopyga is also equipped with anal teeth (modified podia), and never throw out Cuvieran tubules, just like Pearsonothuria.
Members of this family occur throughout the oceans of the world at low to middle latitudes. They often live in 珊瑚礁s and nearby sandy habitat types, and a few occur in deeper waters. In the 印度洋-太平洋海域 they are often dominant taxa in coral reef habitat. Most species are 食碎屑动物s.[4]
^ 4.04.1Kerr, Alexander M.; Janies, Daniel A.; Clouse, Ronald M.; Samyn, Yves; Kuszak, Jeni; Kim, Junhyong. Molecular phylogeny of coral-reef sea cucumbers (Holothuriidae: Aspidochirotida) based on 16S mitochondrial ribosomal DNA sequence. Marine Biotechnology. 2004, 7 (1): 53–60. doi:10.1007/s10126-004-0019-y.引用错误：带有name属性“kerr”的<ref>标签用不同内容定义了多次引用错误：带有name属性“kerr”的<ref>标签用不同内容定义了多次
^Pearsonothuria Levin in Levin, Kalinin & Stonik, 1984. WoRMS. [2021-06-01].
^Levin, VS.; Kalinin, VI; Stonik, VA. Chemical characters and taxonomic revision of holothurian Bohadschia graeffei (Semper) as refer to erection of a new genus. Biologia Morya. 1984, 1984 (3): 33–38 （英语）.
