Near ThreatenedEdible Sea Urchin
Echinus esculentus
33 countries43 parks75 dive sites
Species group · Sea urchins
WAnimals has 4 species of urchin, spread across 4 families (Diadematidae, Echinidae, Spatangidae, Strongylocentrotidae).
Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 4.
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.
Recorded in 146 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
It scrapes algae off rocks with its Aristotle's lantern, made up of five calcareous teeth.
From
A large female can release as many as 20 million eggs.
From
It is the only sea urchin listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN.
From
Its long hollow spines break off easily inside the skin on contact and release a toxin that causes intense, lasting pain.
From
In 1983 and 1984 a disease of unknown origin killed more than 95% of the Caribbean population in little over a year, and without its grazing many reefs shifted from being dominated by coral to being dominated by algae, a change they have still not recovered from.
From
In 2022 a further mass mortality, attributed to a ciliate protozoan, struck the recovering populations again.
From
It has lost the radial symmetry typical of echinoderms and regained a bilateral one, with a front and a back, an adaptation to a buried and mobile life.
From
·
It maintains a clean-water shaft to the surface using specialised tube feet that build and clean the tunnel.
From Purple Heart Urchin
