Sea urchin embryo and larvae in the early developmental stages is an important model for research on marine ecological toxicology. Sea urchin dopaminergic (DA) nervous system develops earlier than the cholinergic system, and it starts to regulate the morphogenesis and swimming behaviors much earlier than the serotonergic system. Here we used sea urchin in the early developmental stages as a model and reviewed the development and the functions of the dopaminergic nervous system. The synthesis of dopamine and the receptors precedes the development of the dopaminergic nervous system. The dopaminergic neuron precursor cell period starts after the synthesis of DA and the receptors. In this period DA and DA receptor 1 (DRD1) appears in the form of granules of which the diameter is 1-2 μm (DA/DRD1-Gs), and they are also expressed on the surface of the embryo and larvae from the rotational blastula stage to the metamorphosis stage. After the aggregation of DA/DRD1-Gs, dopaminergic cells with the axon contacts begin to develop in the labial ganglion and the base of the back oral arms in the early four-wrist larval stage. The number of dopaminergic cells reached the maximum in the eight-wrist larval stage. Then the dopaminergic nervous system continues to develop until the maturity. The morphogenesis in the early developmental stage is regulated by several neurotransmitter systems together, and the swimming behaviors in different early periods can be regulated by either the dopaminergic nervous system alone or together with other systems. In the end, we assessed the prospective studies on issues, such as the factors affecting the development of the dopaminergic nervous system in the early developmental stages of sea urchin, the functions and the signaling pathway of DA receptors, the primary-secondary relationship and the mechanisms of the up-/down-regulation of the three important neurotransmitter systems in early morphogenesis and swimming behaviors, and the influences of neurotoxic substances on the development of the dopaminergic nervous system.