Butterfly Pavilion - Combining science education with hands-on fun to teach visitors about invertebrates, science and conservation.


	Purple Sea Urchin
Common Name Purple Sea Urchin Scientific Name Strongylocentrotus franciscanus Family Echinoidea Origin: Alaska to Baja California Notes: Sea urchins get their name from the Old English word urchin and means spiny. These vivid purple sea urchins are found above the low-tide line, often in depressions in rocks that they have slowly eroded with their teeth and spines. This species does not have poisonous spines like other members of the class sometimes possess. Urchins are grazers on algae. Many urchins will pick up small stones, shells, etc. with their tube feet and cover their surface with these items perhaps to camouflage themselves from predators.

Purple Sea Urchin

Common Name Purple Sea Urchin
Scientific Name Strongylocentrotus franciscanus
Family Echinoidea
Origin: Alaska to Baja California

Notes: Sea urchins get their name from the Old English word urchin and means spiny. These vivid purple sea urchins are found above the low-tide line, often in depressions in rocks that they have slowly eroded with their teeth and spines. This species does not have poisonous spines like other members of the class sometimes possess. Urchins are grazers on algae. Many urchins will pick up small stones, shells, etc. with their tube feet and cover their surface with these items perhaps to camouflage themselves from predators.