Purple Sea Urchin — printable fact sheet
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Purple Sea Urchin
Strongylocentrotus purpuratus
Strongylocentrotus purpuratus is the animal at the centre of one of the most consequential ecological collapses on the west coast of North America. When sea star wasting disease annihilated the sunflower star, its main predator, from 2013 onward, and a marine heatwave weakened t…
Did you know?
- Despite their small size, Purple Sea Urchins can have a massive impact on their ecosystem, sometimes transforming lush kelp forests into barren seascapes.
- Sea urchins have no eyes but appear to see with their whole body — the tube feet carry light-sensitive proteins and the spines shade them, so the animal effectively works as a single compound eye. Purple urchins can live over 50 years, and some related species have been aged past 100 with almost no sign of senescence. Divers now harvest and cull barren urchins commercially, and because starved urchins have no edible roe, some operations fatten them in tanks to sell as uni.
What I learned
Draw the purple sea urchin
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