Echinus esculentus (2) Large Red Spherical Sea Urchin Sea Hedgehog Echinoderma Echinozoa Echinoidea Regularia Echinidae

Echinus esculentus Large Red Spherical Sea Urchin cm 9.3 x 8.2 h Sea Hedgehog Echinoderma Echinozoa Echinoidea Regularia Echinidae, only a piece, as in photo.
Family: Echinidae.
Common name: The European Edible Sea Urchin or Common Sea Urchin.
Syn. Cidaris esculenta, Cidaris hemisphaera, Echinus aurantiacus, Echinus esculentus, Echinus globiformis, Echinus pseudomelo, Echinus quinqueangulatus, Echinus quinqueangulosus, Echinus Schwartzii, Echinus sphaera, Echinus subangulosus, Echinus violaceus, Sphaerechinus esculentus.

Echinus esculentus is a Sea Urchin, a species of Echinoderm invertebrate of the Echinidae family. It is found in coastal areas of Western Europe up to a depth of 1,200 m.
E. esculentus is roughly spherical but slightly flattened at both poles. It is reddish or purplish with white tubercles and grows to about ten centimeters in diameter. The calcareous, brittle dermis is rigid and divided into five ambulacral areas separated by five interambulacral areas. There are two rows of plates in each of these areas, for a total of twenty rows. The body is covered in spines each articulated with a tubercle. The spines are blunt and usually white with purplish tips.
In the North Sea the species is common in all areas with hard substrates. It is found off the coasts of Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The mouthparts are designed for scraping and E. esculentus feeds on encrusting algae and invertebrates, worms, barnacles, hydrozoans, tunicates, bryozoans, muds and detritus.
Spawning occurs mostly in the spring, and a large female can release around 20 million eggs into the water column. The larvae become part of the plankton, whose development is complex and takes forty-five to sixty days in captivity.
The species name esculentus means "edible". Sea urchin roe is used as a food worldwide, but esculentus is not a preferred sea urchin species due to its white gonads. Sea urchin species with orange gonads are preferred. In reality it is not the eggs that are eaten but the gonads, both male and female.