Antique Engraved Illustration Of Echinocardium Cordatum. Vintage Illustration Of The Common Heart Urchin. Old Engraved

Antique engraved illustration of Echinocardium cordatum. Vintage illustration of the common heart urchin. Old engraved picture. Book illustration published 1907. Echinocardium cordatum, also known as the common heart urchin or the sea potato, is a sea urchin in the family Loveniidae. It is found in sub-tidal regions in the NE Atlantic. Other un-named species have been identified as this species from temperate seas around the world. It lives buried in the sandy sea floor. The sea potato is a heart-shaped urchin clothed in a dense mat of furrowed yellowish spines which grow from tubercles and mostly point backwards. The upper surface is flattened and there is an indentation near the front. This urchin is a fawn colour but the tests that are found on the strandline have often lost their spines and are white. During life, the spines trap air which helps prevent asphyxiation for the buried urchin. The ambulacra form a broad furrow in a star shape extending down the sides of the test. There are two series each of two rows of tube feet. The test reaches from six to nine centimetres in length.