Sea Urchin Hideaways
February 26, 2018
Sea urchins carve out their own homes in the rock with their teeth.
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Transcript
Purple sea urchins grow to fit perfectly inside cavities that they create themselves. (Mike Russell/Creative Commons)
BOB HIRSHON (host):
Sea urchin home improvement. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.
Sea urchins are a common sight in tide pools wordlwide. Many inhabit rounded cavities within the rock that fit them like a glove. Now, researchers report in the journal PLOS ONE that the spiky creatures can efficiently bore these holes themselves with their five super-sharp teeth.
MIKE RUSSELL (Villanova University):
And these five teeth are constantly rasping and chewing. And one of the amazing things about the teeth is that they are self-sharpening and regenerating.
HIRSHON:
Villanova University marine ecologist Mike Russell and his team brought purple sea urchins into the lab and measured their pit-scraping efficiency on four different types of rock over the course of a year. They estimate that while an industrious urchin could potentially carve out a sandstone hideaway in less than five years, granite would take at least several generations of urchins. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.
Story by Susanne Bard
