Sea Urchins?

Found these guys in the sand near Gray's Reef off the Georgia coast. Don't ask why I was only "near".

Initially thought some kind of decorator or hermit crab, but, in spite of the fact that they look most like echidnas or hedgehogs, I'm guessing that they are some kind of sea urchin. Never heard of sea urchins decorating themselves, though.

Woody's Diopter worked just dandily this time.

Kevin

That is a common urchin behavior. Most urchin species cover debris with their tube feet like apendages coming from the top half of the body. Does anyone know what theses apendages are called? Are they still called tube feed when they come from the top of the body?

I dont know about what species live in georgia but if you said the picture was from south florida or the caribbean, i would say it was Variegated Urchin (Lytechinus variegatus)

In The West Indies we call that a West Indian Sea Egg .. different from a sea urchin in many ways .. but also very similar .. shorter spines it uses as legs are all over .. has sticky tentacles that grip .. and a big body .. apparently very nice to eat too.

I thought I was being funny about the echidna and hedgehog, but while researching "collector urchins" I ran across:

[Latin echnus, sea urchin, from Greek ekhnos, sea urchin, hedgehog, from ekhis, adder, viper.]

and:

e·chid·na ( P ) Pronunciation Key (-kdn)

n.

Any of several nocturnal, burrowing, egg-laying mammals of the genera Tachyglossus and Zaglossus of Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea, having a spiny coat, slender snout, and an extensible sticky tongue used for catching insects. Also called spiny anteater.

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[Latin, adder, viper, from Greek ekhidna, from ekhis.]

Well, *I* thought it was interesting.

Kevin

In The West Indies we call that a West Indian Sea Egg .. different from a sea urchin in many ways .. but also very similar .. shorter spines it uses as legs are all over .. has sticky tentacles that grip .. and a big body .. apparently very nice to eat too.

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Giles, the West Indian Sea Egg, has a dark shell with white spines. This guy has white shell and white spines so I dont think thats what this is.

Also, The West Indian Sea Egg is no less of a sea urchin than any other sea urchin. All urchins have sticky tentacles that can grip all over body. West Indian Sea egg is in the Sea Urchin Class (Echinoidea) with all the other sea urchins.

It's nice to see all these latin names and family and species and stuff .. but some of us non scientist like the layman names ... Like a blue tang is a type of surgeon fish .. this is a type of urchin .. but whats it's name .. maybe Atlantic .. or maybe a Georgia Sea Egg ?

Not even sure how I ended up back on this page, but it's now kind of funny that I was so fascinated with those urchins. BTW, I've never since tried diving Gray's Reef again. It was an all around terrible experience. But, I've become a semi-regular Blue Heron Bridge diver in the last few years and this variegated urchin is very common at that site. I've since learnt that if one turns enough of these over, one can find both bumblebee shrimp and squat urchin shrimp hanging out on the underside.