Sea Urchin, in the large exhibit pool (Life on the Edge), at Seattle Aquarium
Life on the Edge at Seattle Aquarium, is an exhibit which allows visitors to experience the tidepool life of Washington's outer coast and Seattle's inland sea, while meeting such creatures as aggregating anemones and sunflower sea stars. Two large exhibit pools, which include touch zones staffed by naturalists, replaced traditional aquarium tanks that formerly occupied the front part of the Aquarium's Pier 59 building. Large video screens help demonstrate the unique lifestyles of the amazing creatures who not only survive, but thrive in the harsh environmental conditions of Washington's tidal zones. Sea urchins or urchins are small, spiny, globular animals that compose part of class Echinoidea. They are found in all oceans. Their shell, or "test", is round and spiny, typically from 3 to 10 centimetres ( to in) across. Common colors include black and dull shades of green, olive, brown, purple, and red. They move slowly, feeding mostly on algae. Sea otters, wolf eels, and other predators feed on urchins. Humans harvest them and serve their roe as a delicacy. Like other echinoderms, sea urchins have five-fold symmetry. This is most apparent in the "regular" sea urchins, which have roughly spherical bodies, with five equally-sized parts radiating out from the central axis. Several sea urchins, however, including the sand dollars, are oval in shape, with distinct front and rear ends, giving them a degree of bilateral symmetry. In these urchins, the upper surface of the body is slightly domed, but the underside is flat, while the sides are devoid of tube feet. This "irregular" body form has evolved to allow the animals to burrow through sand or other soft material
Size: 5050px × 3360px
Location: Seattle Aquarium, 1483 Alaskan Way, Seattle, WA 98101
Photo credit: © John Gaffen 2 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: aquarium, close-, echinoderm, echinoidea, marine, organism, sea, spines, symmetry, tidepool, urchin
