I have for some reason encountered a trio of tropical Fire Urchin videos I feel compelled to share with everyone this week! Maybe its because they remind me of Fall?
Two of the species below belong to the Echinothuriidae..which are primarily deep-sea (I will follow up with a post on this later)..but the species featured today live in the shallow waters of the tropical Indo-Pacific!
The species at the very bottom is Astropyga which is a member of the Diadematidae...not that closely related-but similar in appearance...(sorry to be paraphyletic here..but they do all carry a theme!)
Their bright colors announce the very toxic poisons that their spines and other structures produce (more on this later when I fully write up echinothuriids later on!)
Asthenosoma varium
Asthenosoma sp.?
Astropyga sp. (Diadematidae)
The last video, of Astropyga, is gorgeous! It's so beautifully colored, the way the small dots round its body. They're all really incredible looking, really well adapted with their surroundings. How awesome.
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