Strongylocentrotus purpuratus

Not to be confused with Arbacia punctulata or Paracentrotus lividus.

Strongylocentrotus purpuratus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Echinoidea
Order: Camarodonta
Family: Strongylocentrotidae
Genus: Strongylocentrotus
Species:
S. purpuratus
Binomial name
Strongylocentrotus purpuratus
(Stimpson, 1857)
Oral surface of Strongylocentrotus purpuratus showing teeth of Aristotle's Lantern, spines and tube feet.
Strongylocentrotus purpuratus

Strongylocentrotus purpuratus is a species of sea urchin in the family Strongylocentrotidae commonly known as the purple sea urchin. It lives along the eastern edge of the Pacific Ocean extending from Ensenada, Mexico, to British Columbia, Canada.[1] This sea urchin species is deep purple in color, and lives in lower inter-tidal and nearshore sub-tidal communities. Its eggs are orange when secreted in water.[2] January, February, and March function as the typical active reproductive months for the species. Sexual maturity is reached around two years.[3] It normally grows to a diameter of about 10 cm (4 inches) and may live as long as 70 years.[4]

Strongylocentrotus purpuratus is used as a model organism and its genome was the first echinoderm genome to be sequenced.[5]

  1. ^ Ricketts EF, Calvin J. Between Pacific Tides. 3rd Rev. edn. 1962 by J.W. Hedgpeth. XII 516. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA. 1939
  2. ^ "Sea Urchin Research | ASU - Ask A Biologist". askabiologist.asu.edu. 2010-04-16. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
  3. ^ "Strongylocentrotus purpuratus". Animal Diversity Web. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
  4. ^ T.A. Ebert, J. R. Southon, 2003. Fish. Bull. 101, 915
  5. ^ Arshinoff, Bradley I; Cary, Gregory A; Karimi, Kamran; Foley, Saoirse; Agalakov, Sergei; Delgado, Francisco; Lotay, Vaneet S; Ku, Carolyn J; Pells, Troy J; Beatman, Thomas R; Kim, Eugene; Cameron, R Andrew; Vize, Peter D; Telmer, Cheryl A; Croce, Jenifer C; Ettensohn, Charles A; Hinman, Veronica F (7 January 2022). "Echinobase: leveraging an extant model organism database to build a knowledgebase supporting research on the genomics and biology of echinoderms". Nucleic Acids Research. 50 (D1): D970–D979. doi:10.1093/nar/gkab1005. PMC 8728261. PMID 34791383.