2023-05-26 15:18:50
Los hedgehogs are spiked aquatic creatures that have appeared as enemies and obstacles throughout the super mario franchise. As their name and appearance suggest, they are based on sea urchins. They are slow but tough enemies that Mario o Luigi they should be avoided normally because they cannot be defeated by normal means, such as a single jump. Although they mainly live underwater, urchins can also live on land.
Real sea urchins are extraordinarily abundant on the coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Asturias, Catalonia and other European countries such as France demand this product where they are considered a delicacy. The season of exploitation is winter, when these animals are in full reproduction and therefore their gonads, what is eaten, are fully developed.
Sea urchins have a globose appearance protected by a rigid shell formed by meridian series of calcareous plates welded together. Almost the entire surface of the carapace is covered with highly mobile spikes. They are not very active animals that feed on algae and small invertebrates. The danger of hedgehogs lies in the toxin that their spines contain and that is released when they are touched.
The tube feet are tubed tentacles ending in a suction cup, which the animal projects and retracts at will, moving slowly. The chewing apparatus is made up of five welded calcareous jaws, each one provided with a continuously growing tooth, all of which is entrenched in a system of rods and bars by muscles and ligaments, it is Aristotle’s lantern with which they chew their food.
The sexes are separate and cannot be distinguished morphologically, fertilization takes place in the water. edible species Paracentrotus lividus y Psammechus is a milestone they have a globose appearance and are of the regular type. The mouth is on the substrate, the anus occupying the opposite pole.
The genus Echinus is represented in our waters by Edible sea urchin which can reach 17 centimeters in diameter, its spikes are short and solid and are usually purple in color; clean, peeled carapace is beautiful with red and purple tones and white quill attachment points.
Another species of this genus is E. acutus up to 16 centimeters in diameter; much more conical and not as well covered with spines, which are few in the upper areas, longer than those of E. sculentus and often with white tips.
Another peculiar-looking regular hedgehog is cidaris cidaris, whose spines become twice as long as the shell, these spines are surrounded at their base by other very small ones and not as numerous as those that cover the previously mentioned species.
In irregular urchins, the mouth and anus are located ventrally, toward the front and rear ends.
The irregular urchins of the Galician coast belong almost entirely to the order of the espatangoideos, heart-shaped animals that dig into the sand with their spines and sink into it to depths that sometimes exceed twice their length.
They are like sea moles, these urchins dig horizontal galleries and advance capturing edible particles with their tentacles that they take to their mouths.
Among the species that live in Galicia we can cite Echinocardium cordatum which is found in sand from the tidal zone to a depth of 200 meters. They are also relatively common Purple spatangus Vivid purplish-red and Brissus unicolor yellow-brown. Japan sues them live or processed from the US
The Japanese are one of the main consumers of sea urchin, both live and processed. From New England, in the United States, hundreds of tons of this product leave every year for the Japanese market. One of the main obstacles for the commercialization of this fishery in the Asian country is that it is very expensive to send it fresh by air since its volume is very considerable.
By the way, the sea urchin genome is also sequenced, but we’ll talk about that another day.
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