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The Class Echinoidea contains animals known as sea urchins and sand dollars that have compact bodies enclosed in an endoskeletal test made of closely fitted plates. Sea urchins have a globular shape with moveable spines. Although the spines of most species are fairly blunt, some have long, sharp spines that can break off easily in the skin and cause great pain! Often these spines are attached to venom glands, making an encounter with them even more unpleasant. Most sea urchins live on rocky or coral substrates, grazing on algae and encrusting animals with a special feeding apparatus called Aristotle´s lantern, which contains five projecting teeth. Sea urchins have long been used in studies of developmental biology, and the eggs (roe) of many species are edible and quite popular in the far east. |
