URCHIN RESEARCHIN’: SEA HEDGEHOGS OF THE REEF

The long-spined sea urchin Diadema antillarum featured in this post is one of those creatures that handily offers its USP in its name, so you know what you are dealing with. Something prickly, for a start. These are creatures of the reef, and many places in the Caribbean and in the western Atlantic generally sustain healthy populations.

These animals are essentially herbivores, and their value to vulnerable coral reefs cannot be overstated. Where there is a healthy population of these urchins, the reef will be kept clean from smothering algae by their methodical grazing. They also eat sea grass.

Long-spined sea urchin Diadema antillarum (Melinda Rodgers / Dive Abaco)

HOW DO THE SPINES OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF URCHIN COMPARE?

Small sea urchin species have spines a few cms long at most. The long-spine variety can exceed 10 cms, and the largest may have spines up to 30 cms (= 1 foot) long. The length, as shown here, means that when the creatures are safely lodged in crevices near their algae supply, their spines remain very visible.

Long-spined sea urchin Diadema antillarum (Melinda Riger / G B Scuba)

Anatomy of a long-spined sea urchin. You may possess a few of these organs yourself…

CAN YOU GIVE US A TEST, PLEASE?

As with SAND DOLLARS and similar creatures, the skeleton of a sea urchin is known as a ‘test’. Urchin tests are remarkably beautiful, especially seen in sunlight. Here are 2 examples I photographed a while ago. You’ll immediately notice the delicate colours and the amazing complexity of the pattern and symmetry. The top one is (or is most like) a long-spined urchin test.

Long-spined sea urchin Test / Skeleton Diadema antillarum (Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour)

A BIT ABOUT SYMMETRY

Sea urchins are born with bilateral symmetry – in effect, you could fold one in half. If you wear gloves. As they grow to adulthood, they retain symmetry but develop so-called ‘fivefold symmetry’, rather as if an orange contained 5 equal-sized segments. The graphic above gives a good idea of how the interior is arranged inside the segments.

A FEW FACTS TO HAND DOWN TO YOUR CHILDREN

Urchin fossil records date the species back to the Ordivician period c 40m years ago
In the ’90s the population was decimated and still has not recovered fully
Urchins feel stress: a bad sign that the spines here are white rather than black
Urchins are not only warm water creatures: some kinds live in polar regions
Urchins are of particular use in scientific research, including genome studies
Some urchins end up in aquariums / aquaria, where I doubt the algae is so tasty
Kindest not to prod or tread on them
Their nearest relative (surprisingly) is said to be the Sea Cucumber

ARE THEY EDIBLE?

They are eaten in some parts of the world, but only where the gonads and roe are considered a delicacy. Personally, I could leave them or leave them.

CREDITS: Melinda Rogers / Dive Abaco (1, 2, 3, 6, 9) taken Abaco; Melinda Riger / G B Scuba (4, 10, 11) taken Grand Bahama; Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour (7, 8) taken Abaco; Wiki graphic (5) CC . RESEARCH Fred Riger for detailed information; otherwise magpie pickings… This is an archive post