Sea urchin skeletons may owe some of their strength to a common geometric design. Urchin skeletons display “an incredible diversity of structures at the microscale, varying from fully ordered to ...

Sea urchins receive a lot of attention in California. Red urchins support a thriving fishery, while their purple cousins are often blamed for mowing down kelp forests to create urchin barrens. Yet for ...

One doesn’t really expect a purple animal. But the most common sea urchin on Oregon’s ocean edge is very purple. Purple sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) have both purple spines and thin ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. There’s a case to be made that the world’s greatest forests ...

The mystery killer behind a recent mass die-off of a once-common sea urchin species has been identified as a parasitic microorganism called a ciliate. Long-spined sea urchins (Diadema antillarum) once ...

When Mya Breitbart heard that something was killing off sea urchins en masse, she thought: Oh no, not again. The long-spined sea urchin—a fist-size ball of black defensive spines—is a crucial and ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Sperm have a unique sense of direction. The reproductive cells of ...

Spiky on the outside, silky within, kina has long been treasured in Māori cuisine. As curiosity grows beyond those shores, here’s your guide to choosing, tasting and serving it properly. Kina dive at ...

Sea urchins are underwater lawnmowers, their unabating, vegetarian appetites capable of altering whole nearshore ecosystems. But the spiny invertebrates will also sink their teeth into something a bit ...