my ocean report sea urchins 2
TRANSCRIPT
What it looks like
A sea urchin has a weird looking mouth at the bottom of it’s body. It has five teeth. It has lots of spines. When it’s a baby its body can be as small as a pea and when it’s an adult its body can be the size of a grapefruit. It can have hundreds of feet and spines. It has tube feet. Its feet have suction cups for traction so it can walk. Sea urchins come in many colors like red, orange, white, black, or purple.
habitat
Sea urchins sometimes live in rocks and coral reefs. Spiny urchins mostly live in sea grass. They like to live in warm water near the shore. They burrow into the place they want to live in and that becomes their home.
Eats and how it get’s food
Sea urchins mostly eat algae and mussels. Sea urchins also eat other plants and rarely eat some small animals. To get their food they sometimes poison it because they have poison in their spines. They move slowly to look for food. If they haven’t eaten in a long time and can’t find any food they nibble on rocks. They help sand dollars by poisoning their enemies so they don’t get eaten.
Its enemies and how it protects itself
Sea urchins poison their enemies. They hide in rocks. They can camouflage so their colors blend in. Animals like lobsters and sea otters, some humans and some other animals eat sea urchins. They burrow sometimes to hide. To protect themselves, they use their hard shell.
Other important information
Sea urchins have shells under their bodies. They have suckers on each foot and the suckers help them breathe. They use their spines to dig. There are more then 800 kinds of sea urchins. They can lay thousands of eggs at a time. They can live for more then one hundred years. Sand dollars and sea biscuits are in the sea urchin family.
