Spineless Song of the Week - Jim's Got a Green Northern Sea Urchin

Jim, as we know him, and his green northern sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis (picture from this unidentifiable Russian site).

They came in hordes, devastating the seafloor, destroying and digesting all in its path. Nothing could stop them. Their spiny defense deterred the toughest of opponents. Pedicilliariae clamped down on even the slightest hint of opposition. The urchins calcareous armour and lance-like spines was a formidable defense, while their 5-plated beak mounted an insurmountable offensive to any would prey - kelp would fall first then barnacles, mussels, whelks, bryozoans, sponges, fish carcasses and even other urchins. Leaving only barren rock in its wake.


Fascinating creatures such as these deserve a tribute and Jim, a friend of the invertebrates, deserves a song. So click on #14 in the sidebar. You can read about the Ecology of the Not-So-Lowly Green Sea Urchin or perhaps learn about sea urchin skeletal flexibility during growth (where jim had n=143 green northern sea urchins!) while listening!

Jim’s got a green Northern sea urchin

Jim’s got a green Northern sea urchin
It’s spiny and round and lives on the ocean bottom
Jim’s got a green Northern sea urchin
It doesn’t do much but crawl around

Its an echinoderm, it don’t run or squirm
Just crawl around and tons of little tube feet
Munch and crunch with Aristotle lantern
Made of five plates that form a beak

Jim’s got a green Northern sea urchin
It tastes mighty good to the wolf eel
Jim’s got a green Northern sea urchin
It also tastes good to the crab

Jim’s got a green Northern sea urchin
Covered in pedicellariae
Jim’s got a green Northern sea urchin
Its exchange gas across tube feet

Its an echinoderm, a chordate, no worm
Covered in a calcareous test
If no predator, they grow in number
Eat all the kelp away unless

Jim’s got a green Northern sea urchin
Model organism for development
Jim’s got a green Northern sea urchin
Echinopluteus larva with arms bent

Jim’s got a green Northern sea urchin
Lives everywhere, in great big hordes
Jim’s got a green Northern sea urchin
Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis