As we draw closer to Springtime all thoughts turn to expelling our gametes into the water!
Here's some new sea urchin videos expelling their echinoderm love into the water to meet MORE love!
The gametes (reproductive cells like sperm and eggs) are expelled by urchins as the white clouds you see below.. The gametes are draw together, meet, and fertilize in the water-leading inevitably to a juvenile settling out and growing up...(the last video)
Some Fire Urchins (Astropyga) from Lembeh
Hawaiian Tripneustes gratilla
here's what happens from spawn to fertilization in a very nicely narrated animation!
and the BEST for last... video of a new settled juvenile sea urchin!!
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