sea urchin

See also: sea-urchin

English

A sea urchin

Etymology

From sea + urchin (“hedgehog”). reflecting a similarity in appearance to the hedgehog.

Noun

sea urchin (plural sea urchins)

1. Any of many marine echinoderms, of the class Echinoidea, commonly found in shallow water, having a complex chewing structure named Aristotle's lantern.
   • 1986, Patrick S. Leahy, Chapter 1: Laboratory Culture of Strongylocentrotus purpuratus Adults, Embryos, and Larvae, Thomas E. Schroeder (editor), Methods in Cell Biology, Volume 27: Echinoderm Gametes and Embryos, page 2,

     Of the many species of sea urchins utilized in biological research today the most widely used in North America is probably the purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus.

   • 2001, V. L. Kasyanov, Reproductive Strategy of Marine Bivalves and Echinoderms, page 90,

     The pericentriolar radial complex characteristic of the spermatozoa of other echinoderms is lacking in the spermatozoa of all sea urchins.

   • 2004, Belinda J. Sly, The Development and Evolution of the Echinoderm Nervous System, page 9,

     Approximately 20% of sea urchins are direct-developers, meaning that they bypass the pluteal larval stage and develop directly into an adult sea urchin.

Synonyms

• (sea urchin): hurcheon

Translations

any of many marine echinoderms of the class Echinoidea

• Basque: itsas triku
• Catalan: garota (ca) f, eriçó de mar (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 海膽, 海胆 (hoi² daam²)

  Mandarin: 海膽 (zh), 海胆 (zh) (hǎidǎn)

• Crimean Tatar: deñiz kirpisi
• Czech: mořský ježek m, ježovka f
• Danish: søpindsvin n
• Dutch: zee-egel (nl) m
• Faroese: igulker n
• Finnish: merisiili (fi)
• French: oursin (fr) m, hérisson de mer (fr) m
• German: Seeigel (de) m
• Greek: αχινός (el) m (achinós)

  Ancient: ἐχῖνος m (ekhînos)

• Hebrew: קִיפּוֹד־יָם‎ m (kipod-yam)
• Hungarian: tengeri sün (hu)
• Icelandic: ígulker (is) n
• Indonesian: bulu babi (id), landak laut
• Irish: cuán mara m
• Italian: riccio di mare n
• Japanese: 海胆 (うに, uni), 雲丹 (うに, uni)

• Korean: 성게 (seongge)
• Lithuanian: jūros ežys m
• Macedonian: морски еж m (mórski ež)
• Malay: landak laut
• Maori: kina, pūrau, pūrou
• Navajo: táłtłʼááh adijiłii
• Nootka: t̕uc̕up
• Norwegian: kråkebolle (no) m

  Bokmål: sjøpiggsvin n, sjøpinnsvin n, kråkebolle (no) m

  Nynorsk: sjøpiggsvin n, kråkebolle m

• Polish: jeżowiec m
• Portuguese: ouriço-do-mar (pt) m
• Romanian: arici de mare m
• Russian: морско́й ёж (ru) m (morskój jož), ёж-ры́ба (ru) f (jož-rýba)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: морски јеж m

  Roman: morski jež m

• Slovene: iglokožec m
• Spanish: erizo de mar m
• Swedish: sjöborre (sv) c
• Tagalog: salungo
• Welsh: môr-ddraenog m, draenog môr m, ŵy môr m

See also

• sand dollar

Anagrams

• echiurans