Echinocardium cordatum

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Echinocardium cordatum
Echinocardium cordatum.jpg
Belgian continental shelf specimen
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Echinoidea
Order: Spatangoida
Family: Loveniidae
Genus: Echinocardium
Species:
E. cordatum
Binomial name
Echinocardium cordatum
(Pennant, 1777) [1]
Synonyms
  • Amphidetus cordatus (Pennant, 1777)
  • Amphidetus kurtzii Girard, 1852
  • Amphidetus Kürtzii Girard, 1852
  • Amphidetus novae zealandiae Perrier, 1869
  • Amphidetus novaezealandiae Perrier, 1869
  • Amphidetus zealandicus (Gray, 1851)
  • Echinocardium australe Gray, 1851
  • Echinocardium cordatus (Pennant, 1777)
  • Echinocardium kurtzii (Girard, 1852)
  • Echinocardium sebae Gray, 1825
  • Echinocardium stimpsonii A. Agassiz, 1863
  • Echinocardium zealandicum Gray, 1851
  • Echinus cordatum Pennant, 1777
  • Echinus cordatus Pennant, 1777
  • Spatangus arcuarius Lamarck, 1816
  • Spatangus cordatus (Pennant, 1777) [1]

Echinocardium cordatum, also known as the common heart urchin [2] or the sea potato, [3] is a sea urchin in the family Loveniidae. It is found in sub-tidal regions in temperate seas throughout the world. [4] [5] It lives buried in the sandy sea floor.

Contents

Description

Specimen with many spines missing, displaying the test (shell) Echinocardium cordatum - sea potato.jpg
Specimen with many spines missing, displaying the test (shell)

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. [2] 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. [3]

Taxonomy

The species was first described as Echinus cordatum in 1777 by Thomas Pennant. [1] [6] It has subsequently been synonymised with Echinocardium sebae Gray, 1825, [1] [7] Spatangus arcuarius Lamarck, 1816, [1] [8] Echinocardium australe Gray, 1851, [1] [9] Echinocardium stimpsonii A. Agassiz, 1864, [1] [10] Echinocardium zealandicum Gray, 1851, [1] [9] Amphidetus novaezelandiae Perrier, 1869, [1] [11] and Amphidetus kurtzii Girard, 1852. [1] [12]

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. [13] 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. [4] It is very common round the coasts of the British Isles in the neritic zone. [14]

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. [15] It makes a respiratory channel leading to the surface and two sanitary channels behind itself, all lined by a mucus secretion. [1] 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. [14]

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. [16] 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. [17] The lifespan of the sea potato is thought to be ten or more years. [18]

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 . [19]

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. [20] Another species that makes use of the burrow is the amphipod crustacean, Urothoe marina . [21]

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. [22] 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. [23]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sea urchin</span> Class of marine invertebrates

Sea urchins are spiny, globular echinoderms in the class Echinoidea. About 950 species of sea urchin are distributed on the seabeds of every ocean and inhabit every depth zone from the intertidal seashore down to 5,000 meters. The spherical, hard shells (tests) of sea urchins are round and covered in spines. Most urchin spines range in length from 3 to 10 cm, with outliers such as the black sea urchin possessing spines as long as 30 cm (12 in). Sea urchins move slowly, crawling with tube feet, and also propel themselves with their spines. Although algae are the primary diet, sea urchins also eat slow-moving (sessile) animals. Predators that eat sea urchins include a wide variety of fish, starfish, crabs, marine mammals, and humans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sand dollar</span> Order of sea urchins

Sand dollars are species of flat, burrowing sea urchins belonging to the order Clypeasteroida. Some species within the order, not quite as flat, are known as sea biscuits. Sand dollars can also be called "sand cakes" or "cake urchins".

<i>Echinarachnius parma</i> Species of sea urchin

Echinarachnius parma, the common sand dollar, is a species of sand dollar native to the Northern Hemisphere.

<i>Echinothrix diadema</i> Species of sea urchin

The diadema urchin or blue-black urchin is a species of tropical sea urchin, member of the Diadematidae family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loveniidae</span> Family of sea urchins

Loveniidae is a family of heart urchins in the order Spatangoida.

<i>Echinocardium</i> Genus of sea urchins

Echinocardium is a genus of sea urchins of the family Loveniidae, known as heart urchins. The name is derived from the Greek ἐχῖνος and καρδία.

<i>Echinocardium australe</i> Species of sea urchin

Echinocardium australe is a sea urchin in the family, Loveniidae, first described by John Edward Gray in 1851, from specimens collected in Port Jackson and Tasmania. It is a synonym of Echinocardium cordatum.

<i>Meoma ventricosa</i> Species of sea urchin

Meoma ventricosa, known by the common names cake urchin and red heart urchin, is a large species of sea urchin which lives in shallow waters in the Caribbean. It may reach a diameter of twenty centimeters and is covered in reddish-brown spines. It has both pentagonal radial symmetry and bilateral symmetry, giving it a sand-dollar appearance; however, two of its five sections are merged more closely than the others.

<i>Lytechinus variegatus</i> Species of sea urchin

Lytechinus variegatus, commonly called the green sea urchin or the variegated sea urchin, is a species of sea urchin that can be found in the warm waters of the western Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.

<i>Eucidaris tribuloides</i> Species of echinoderm

Eucidaris tribuloides, the slate pencil urchin, is a species of cidaroid sea urchins that inhabits littoral regions of the Atlantic Ocean. As a member of the basal echinoid order Cidaroida, its morphological, developmental and molecular genetic characteristics make it a phylogenetically interesting species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spatangoida</span> Order of sea urchins

The heart urchins or Spatangoida are an order of sea urchins.

<i>Dendraster excentricus</i> Species of sea urchin

Dendraster excentricus, also known as the eccentric sand dollar, sea-cake, biscuit-urchin, western sand dollar, or Pacific sand dollar, is a species of sand dollar in the family Dendrasteridae. It is a flattened, burrowing sea urchin found in the north-eastern Pacific Ocean from Alaska to Baja California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cidaridae</span> Family of sea urchins

Cidaridae is a family of sea urchins in the order Cidaroida.

<i>Ensis ensis</i> Species of bivalve

Ensis ensis, or the sword razor, is a razor clam, a marine bivalve mollusc in the family Pharidae. It lives buried in the sand and is found off the coasts of northwest Europe.

<i>Fabulina fabula</i> Species of bivalve

Fabulina fabula, the bean-like tellin, is a species of marine bivalve mollusc in the family Tellinidae. It is found off the coasts of northwest Europe, where it lives buried in sandy sediments.

<i>Eucidaris</i> Genus of sea urchins

Eucidaris is a genus of cidaroid sea urchins known as slate pencil urchins. They are characterised by a moderately thick test, a usually monocyclic apical disc, perforate and non-crenulate tubercles and nearly straight ambulacra with horizontal pore pairs. The primary spines are few and widely spaced, stout with blunt flat tips and beaded ornamentation and the secondary spines are short and apressed. They originated in the Miocene and extant members of the genus are found in the tropical Indo-Pacific Ocean, East Pacific, Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.

<i>Toxopneustes maculatus</i> Species of sea urchin

Toxopneustes maculatus is a rare species of sea urchin found in the Indo-West Pacific.

Acrocnida brachiata, the sand burrowing brittlestar, is a species of brittle star in the family Amphiuridae. It occurs on the seabed in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, living semi-buried in the sand with only its arm tips projecting.

<i>Echinocardium flavescens</i> Species of sea urchin

Echinocardium flavescens, sometimes called the yellow sea potato, is a species of sea urchin in the family Loveniidae, chiefly found in the northeast Atlantic region.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species - Echinocardium cordatum (Pennant, 1777)". www.marinespecies.org. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  2. 1 2 European Marine Life
  3. 1 2 "Sea potato (Echinocardium cordatum)". The Marine Life Information Network. MarLIN. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
  4. 1 2 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.
  5. ↑ "Echinocardium cordatum (Pennant, 1777)". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2024-02-11.
  6. ↑ Pennant, T. (1777). British Zoology, vol. IV. Crustacea. Mollusca. Testacea. Vol. i–viii. London. pp. 1–154, pls. 1-93.
  7. ↑ Gray, J.E. (1825). "An attempt to divide the Echinida, or Sea Eggs, into natural families". Annals of Philosophy. New Series. 10: 423–431.
  8. ↑ 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.
  9. 1 2 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.
  10. ↑ 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.
  11. ↑ 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.
  12. ↑ 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.
  13. ↑ World Register of Marine Species
  14. 1 2 National Museums of Northern Ireland
  15. ↑ 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.
  16. ↑ "Zimnes: Echinopluteus larva". Archived from the original on 2012-03-27. Retrieved 2011-07-15.
  17. ↑ Kashenko, S.D., (1994). Larval development of the heart urchin Echinocardium cordatum feeding on different macroalgae. Biologiya Morya, 20, 385-389.
  18. ↑ 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
  19. ↑ Elements of Marine Ecology
  20. ↑ Fish, J.D. and Fish, S., (1996). A student's guide to the seashore. Second edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  21. ↑ Hayward, P.J. & Ryland, J.S. (ed.) (1995b). Handbook of the marine fauna of North-West Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  22. ↑ Damien, Enright (25 January 2010). "Living on the harvest of the bay". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  23. ↑ "Mystery of Beach Shells that look like Our Lady". Free Online Library. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
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