| Echinocardium cordatum | |
|---|---|
| |
| Belgian continental shelf specimen | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Echinodermata |
| Class: | Echinoidea |
| Order: | Spatangoida |
| Family: | Loveniidae |
| Genus: | Echinocardium |
| Species: | E. cordatum |
| Binomial name | |
| Echinocardium cordatum (Pennant, 1777) | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Echinocardium cordatum, also known as the common heart urchin or the sea potato, is a sea urchin in the family Loveniidae. It is found in sub-tidal regions in temperate seas throughout the world. It lives buried in the sandy sea floor.
Description
The sea potato is a heart-shaped urchin clothed in a dense mat of furrowed yellowish spines which grow from tubercles and mostly point backwards. The upper surface is flattened and there is an indentation near the front. This urchin is a fawn colour but the tests that are found on the strandline have often lost their spines and are white. During life, the spines trap air which helps prevent asphyxiation for the buried urchin. The ambulacra form a broad furrow in a star shape extending down the sides of the test. There are two series each of two rows of tube feet. The test reaches from six to nine centimetres in length.
Taxonomy
The species was first described as Echinus cordatum in 1777 by Thomas Pennant. It has subsequently been synonymised with Echinocardium sebae Gray, 1825, Spatangus arcuarius Lamarck, 1816, Echinocardium australe Gray, 1851, Echinocardium stimpsonii A. Agassiz, 1864, Echinocardium zealandicum Gray, 1851, Amphidetus novaezelandiae Perrier, 1869, and Amphidetus kurtzii Girard, 1852.
Distribution
The sea potato has a discontinuous cosmopolitan distribution. It is reported from temperate seas in the north Atlantic Ocean, the west Pacific Ocean, around Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the Gulf of California at depths of down to 230 metres. A 2016 study revealed that it was a complex of at least 5 species, with three in Europe, one in Australia and one in the NW Pacific. It is very common round the coasts of the British Isles in the neritic zone.
Biology
The sea potato buries itself in sand to a depth of ten to fifteen centimetres. It occurs in sediments with a wide range of grain sizes but prefers sediments with a size of 200 to 300 μm and a low mud content. It makes a respiratory channel leading to the surface and two sanitary channels behind itself, all lined by a mucus secretion. The location of burrows can be recognised by a conical depression on the surface in which detritus collects. This organic debris is used by the buried animal as food and is passed down by means of the long tube feet found in the front of the ambulacrum.
The sexes are separate in the sea potato and the males and females both liberate gametes into the water table in the spring. The echinoplutei larvae that develop after fertilisation have four pairs of arms and are laterally flattened. In late stage larvae, tube feet may be seen developing round the skeleton. The larvae are pelagic and form part of the zooplankton. Metamorphosis takes place about 39 days after fertilisation with the larvae settling out and burrowing into the substrate. The lifespan of the sea potato is thought to be ten or more years.
Ecology
In the sandy sea bed that it favours, the sea potato is often found in association with the bivalve molluscs Tellina fabula, Ensis ensis and Venus striatula.
The bivalve Tellimya ferruginosa is often found living inside the sea potato's burrow as a commensal. Up to fourteen have been found in one burrow with the young being attached to the spines of the urchin by byssus threads. Another species that makes use of the burrow is the amphipod crustacean, Urothoe marina.
Gallery
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In culture
The test (shell) of the sea potato has cultural significance in West Cork, Ireland, where it is traditionally referred to as a "Virgin Mary" shell. According to traditional belief, the distinct patterns visible on the test are thought to resemble an apparition of the Virgin Mary. There is also a traditional association between the appearance of the shells on beaches in West Cork and the Marian month of May and the Feast of the Assumption.
External links
References
- ^ "WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species - Echinocardium cordatum (Pennant, 1777)". www.marinespecies.org. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
- ^ European Marine Life
- ^ "Sea potato (Echinocardium cordatum)". The Marine Life Information Network. MarLIN. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
- ^ E. Egea, B. David, T. Choné, B. Laurin, J.P. Féral, A. Chenuil, (2016) Morphological and genetic analyses reveal a cryptic species complex in the echinoid Echinocardium cordatum and rule out a stabilizing selection explanation. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Volume 94, Part A, Pages 207-220, ISSN 1055-7903, doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2015.07.023.
- "Echinocardium cordatum (Pennant, 1777)". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2024-02-11.
- Pennant, T. (1777). British Zoology, vol. IV. Crustacea. Mollusca. Testacea. Vol. i–viii. London. pp. 1–154, pls. 1-93.
- Gray, J.E. (1825). "An attempt to divide the Echinida, or Sea Eggs, into natural families". Annals of Philosophy. New Series. 10: 423–431.
- Lamarck, J.-B. M. de. (1816). Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertèbres présentant les caractéres généraux et particuliers de ces animaux, leur distribution, leurs classes, leurs familles, leurs genres, et la citation des principales espèces qui s'y rapportent. Vol. 3. Paris: Deterville/Verdière.
- ^ Gray J.E. (1851). "Descriptions of some new genera and species of Spatangidae in the British Museum". The Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 2nd Series. 7: 130–134.
- Agassiz, A. (1864). "Synopsis of the echinoids collected by Dr. W. Stimpson on the North Pacific Exploring Expedition under the command of Captains Ringgold and Rodgers". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 15 (1863): 352–361.
- Perrier, E. (1869) Recherche sur les pédicellaires et les ambulacres des astérides et des oursins. Thèses présentées à la Faculté des Sciences de Paris pour obtenir le Grade de Docteur ès Sciences Naturelles Victor Masson et fils, Paris. 5-188, plates 1-7.
- Girard, C. F. (1852). Description of two new genera and two new species of Planaria. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History. 4: 210-213.
- World Register of Marine Species
- ^ National Museums of Northern Ireland
- Degraer S., J. Wittoeck, W. Appeltans, K. Cooreman, T. Deprez, H. Hillewaert, K. Hostens, J. Mees, E. Vanden Berghe & M. Vincx (2006). The macrobenthos atlas of the Belgian part of the North Sea. Belgian Science Policy. D/2005/1191/3. ISBN 90-810081-6-1. 164 pp.
- "Zimnes: Echinopluteus larva". Archived from the original on 2012-03-27. Retrieved 2011-07-15.
- Kashenko, S.D., (1994). Larval development of the heart urchin Echinocardium cordatum feeding on different macroalgae. Biologiya Morya, 20, 385-389.
- Buchanan, J.B., (1966). The biology of Echinocardium cordatum (Echinodermata: Spatangoidea) from different habitats. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 46, 97-114.doi:10.1017/S0025315400017574
- Elements of Marine Ecology
- Fish, J.D. and Fish, S., (1996). A student's guide to the seashore. Second edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Hayward, P.J. & Ryland, J.S. (ed.) (1995b). Handbook of the marine fauna of North-West Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Damien, Enright (25 January 2010). "Living on the harvest of the bay". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
- "Mystery of Beach Shells that look like Our Lady". Free Online Library. Retrieved 15 August 2021.