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Image: Clypeaster rosaceus (San Salvador Island, Bahamas) 3

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Description: Clypeaster rosaceus Lamarck, 1816 - washed ashore onto a rocky shoreline.

Irregular echinoids have somewhat globular skeletons (tests) composed of interlocking calcite plates and covered in short, fur-like spines. The skeleton is bilaterally symmetrical, not pentaradially symmetrical as in the sea urchins. The upper side of the skeleton has the pattern of a 5-petaled star - each petal is an ambulacrum. The mouth and anus are at opposite ends of the long axis of the skeleton. Heart urchins are infaunal deposit feeders - they consume bulk sediments, digest any organic matter mixed in, and excrete large quantities of sediments.

In the specimen shown above, decay has resulted in the spines being detached - the small pustules are spine attachment bases.

Locality: beach landward from Snapshot Reef, Fernandez Bay, western San Salvador Island, eastern Bahamas
Author: James St. John
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License: CC-BY-SA-3.0
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