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Home > Science Update Podcast – Daily Edition > Sea Urchin Hideaways
Podcast: Science Update Podcast – Daily Edition
Episode:

Sea Urchin Hideaways
Category: Science & Medicine
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2018-02-25 22:46:58
Description:
Purple sea urchins grow to fit perfectly inside cavities that they create themselves. (Michael Russell/Creative Commons)

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
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