Echinodermata · echinoderms
Long-spined sea urchin
Diadema antillarum
Diadematidae · long-spined urchinsIUCN: Not evaluated
A black reef urchin with needle-like spines and a key algae grazer.
Fun factA mass die-off in 1983 helped algae overgrow Caribbean reefs.
- Waters
- Tropical Atlantic & Caribbean
- Depth zone
- Coral reefs
- Diet
- Algae (grazer)
- Size
- Test up to 10 cm; spines up to 30 cm
Classification
Echinodermata › Echinoidea › Diadematidae
- Kingdom Animalia animals
- Many-celled organisms that eat other living things for energy (heterotrophs)
- Cells have no cell walls
- Most can move at some stage of life
- Clade Bilateria bilateral animals
- Body has a left and right side that mirror each other (bilateral symmetry)
- Head end with concentrated nerves; three tissue layers
- Includes about 99% of all living animal species
- Clade Deuterostomia deuterostomes
- In the embryo, the first opening becomes the anus and the mouth forms second
- Includes echinoderms and chordates
- Phylum Echinodermata echinoderms
- Adults usually have five-part radial symmetry
- Water-vascular system powers tiny tube feet
- Skeleton of limestone plates (ossicles) in the skin
- Class Echinoidea sea urchins & sand dollars
- Sea urchins and sand dollars: rigid, rounded shell (test) of fused plates
- Covered in movable spines
- Jaw apparatus called Aristotle's lantern
- Family Diadematidae long-spined urchins
- Long-spined tropical urchins with hollow, brittle spines
- Genus Diadema
- Species in the same genus are very close relatives and often look alike.
- Species Diadema antillarum Long-spined sea urchin
Closest relatives in the guide
- Common sand dollar Echinarachnius parma same class
- Green sea urchin Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis same class
- Red sea urchin Mesocentrotus franciscanus same class