Lovenia Heart Urchin

Lovenia elongata

Lovenia elongata is a sea urchin from the Loveniidae family. The scientific name of the species was published in 1845 by John Edward Gray.
Juvenile Lovenia Heart urchin - Lovenia_elongata Rojos I, Lembeh. Most likely a juvenile as it was smaller than 1 inch (see pointer next to it). It was trying to hide in the sand. These sea urchins can also move really quickly! Geotagged,Indonesia,Lovenia Heart Urchin,Lovenia elongata,Spring

Appearance

Size up to 6-8cm long. Body teardrop-shaped, with a deep groove in the front and tapered at the back end. Petaloid not obvious in living specimens. Sparse long spines which are banded, with many shorter spines covering the body. It can use these spines to burrow and to move around quite rapidly, as Mei Lin's video clip (below) shows. Overall colour dark rose pink.

Naming

Parent
Lovenia Desor in Agassiz & Desor, 1847
Orig. name
Spatangus elongata Gray, 1845
Synonymised names
Lorenia elongata (Gray, 1845) (misspelling)
Lovenia hystrix Desor in L. Agassiz & Desor, 1847 (subjective junior synonym)
Spatangus elongata Gray, 1845 (incorrect declination of species name)
Spatangus elongatus Gray, 1845 (transferred to Lovenia)

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=214656
http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/echinodermata/echinoidea/hearturchin/lovenia.htm
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovenia_elongata
Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionEchinodermata
ClassEchinoidea
OrderSpatangoida
FamilyLoveniidae
GenusLovenia
SpeciesLovenia elongata
Photographed in
Indonesia