SEA URCHIN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sea urchin mean? 

• SEA URCHIN (noun)
  The noun SEA URCHIN has 1 sense:

1. shallow-water echinoderms having soft bodies enclosed in thin spiny globular shells

  Familiarity information: SEA URCHIN used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SEA URCHIN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Shallow-water echinoderms having soft bodies enclosed in thin spiny globular shells

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("sea urchin" is a kind of...):

echinoderm (marine invertebrates with tube feet and five-part radially symmetrical bodies)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sea urchin"):

Echinus esculentus; edible sea urchin (a sea urchin that can be eaten)

sand dollar (flattened disklike sea urchins that live on sandy bottoms)

heart urchin (sea urchin having a heart-shaped body in a rigid spiny shell)

Holonyms ("sea urchin" is a member of...):

class Echinoidea; Echinoidea (sea urchins and sand dollars)

 Context examples 

A. solmonicida is found in freshwater and marine environments and causes furunculosis in fish and bald sea urchin disease.

(Aeromonas salmonicida, NCI Thesaurus)

"Removal of algae grazers such as herbivorous fish and sea urchins leads to increases in macroalgae, which then leads to increased organic carbon, contributing to the degradation of coral reefs," Weber adds.

(Microbes reflect the health of coral reefs, National Science Foundation)

An orally available nutritional supplement and proprietary formulation containing extracts from the sea cucumber, sea sponge, shark fin, sea urchin and the marine grass Sargassum, with potential antioxidant, antitumor, anti-angiogenic and immunomodulating activities.

(Nutraceutical TBL-12, NCI Thesaurus)

Working in the Galapagos Islands, the biologists studied wave motions, conducted underwater experiments and used marine life censuses to evaluate the effects of wave turbulence on sea urchins and fish feeding on algae.

(Galapagos sea life study highlights importance of biodiversity in the face of climate change, National Science Foundation)

The researchers noted the sevengill sharks might not have the same effect on the ecosystems involved as the great whites have had, citing the ecological disruption apparently caused off Alaska when a change in orca behavior had a knock-on effect, disrupting sea otters' predation of sea urchins, whose population then exploded, plowing through the area's kelp forests.

(Study indicates as great white shark disappears, living fossil moves in, Wikinews)