Asthenosoma is a genus of
sea urchin
Sea urchins () are spiny, globular echinoderms in the class Echinoidea. About 950 species of sea urchin live on the seabed of every ocean and inhabit every depth zone from the intertidal seashore down to . The spherical, hard shells (tests) of ...
s in the family
Echinothuriidae. Their spines are covered with harmful venom capsules.
Taxonomy
The World Echinoidea Database recognises the following species:
* ''
Asthenosoma dilatatum''
Mortensen, 1934
* ''
Asthenosoma ijimai
''Asthenosoma ijimai'' is a species of sea urchin of the family Echinothuriidae. Their armour is covered with spines. It is placed in the genus Asthenosoma and lives in the sea. Asthenosoma ijimai was first scientifically described in 1897 by Yo ...
''
Yoshiwara, 1897
* ''
Asthenosoma intermedium''
H.L. Clark, 1938
* ''
Asthenosoma marisrubri
''Asthenosoma marisrubri'' ('flexible body of the Red Sea') (Weinberg & De Ridder, 1998) aka Red Sea fire urchin and toxic leather sea urchin , is a relatively common sea urchin with a widespread distribution in the Indo-Pacific, and was till 19 ...
''
Weinberg & de Ridder, 1998 – "Red sea fire urchin"
* ''
Asthenosoma periculosum''
Endean, 1964
* ''
Asthenosoma striatissimum''
Ravn, 1928 †
* ''
Asthenosoma varium
''Asthenosoma varium'' is a sea urchin (an echinoderm, a member of the phylum that also includes star fish). Growing up to in diameter, it lives on sand and rubble sea bottoms in the Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea to Australia and Southern Japan ...
''
Grube, 1868 – "fire sea urchin".
"†" means an
extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
taxon
In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...
.
Image:Pygmy Cuttlefish on Fire Seaurchin.jpg, ''Asthenosoma varium
''Asthenosoma varium'' is a sea urchin (an echinoderm, a member of the phylum that also includes star fish). Growing up to in diameter, it lives on sand and rubble sea bottoms in the Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea to Australia and Southern Japan ...
''
Image:Toxic Leather Sea Urchin - Asthenosoma marisrubri.jpg, ''Asthenosoma marisrubri
''Asthenosoma marisrubri'' ('flexible body of the Red Sea') (Weinberg & De Ridder, 1998) aka Red Sea fire urchin and toxic leather sea urchin , is a relatively common sea urchin with a widespread distribution in the Indo-Pacific, and was till 19 ...
''.
References
Extant Middle Jurassic first appearances
{{Echinoidea-stub