Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Urchin beak

Description:

A sea urchins mouth have lips of soft tissue that also have small bony pieces embedded inside. Their mouth is found on the underside part of the urchin (also called the oral side) They also have teeth. These teeth act like jaws. There are five teeth in most sea urchins and they are part of the organ called Aristotle's lantern. The Aristotle’s lantern is the organ that chews and ingests food. This complex structure is composed of five jaws made up of calcium plates. The plates are connected by muscles. Creatures use their Aristotle's lantern, or mouths, to scrape algae off rocks and other surfaces, as well as biting and chewing prey. References: https://www.thoughtco.com/aristotles-lan... https://askabiologist.asu.edu/sea-urchin... https://askabiologist.asu.edu/aristotles...

Notes:

Found it laying in shallow water near the shoreline

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

4 Comments

TajSALDO
TajSALDO 4 years ago

I guess you are right @Machi, Thanks for letting me know. I'll be updating this spotting soon.

Machi
Machi 4 years ago

Definitely an urchin beak.

Gaia80
Gaia80 4 years ago

It could be the remains of a starfish or some kind of sea urchin, but I really have no clue otherwise.

Single D
Single D 4 years ago

I don't know what this is either but I sure do like your spotting.

TajSALDO
Spotted by
TajSALDO

Palawan, Philippines

Spotted on Jul 4, 2019
Submitted on Jul 9, 2019

Related Spottings

Purple spine sea urchin Diadema Urchin

Nearby Spottings

Horned sea star Heart Urchin shell Spotting Spotting
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team