The sea potato is a heart-shaped urchin clothed in a dense mat of furrowed yellowish spines which grow from tubercles and … See more

The species was first described as Echinus cordatum in 1777 by Thomas Pennant. It has subsequently been synonymised with Echinocardium sebae Gray, 1825, Spatangus arcuarius Lamarck, 1816, Echinocard… See more

The sea potato has a discontinuous cosmopolitan distribution. It is reported from temperate seas in the north Atlantic Ocean, the west Pacific Ocean, around Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the Gulf of … See more

The sea potato buries itself in sand to a depth of ten to fifteen centimetres. It occurs in sediments with a wide range of grain sizes but prefers sediments with a size of 200 to 300 μm and a low mud content. It makes a re… See more

In the sandy sea bed that it favours, the sea potato is often found in association with the bivalve molluscs Tellina fabula, Ensis ensis and Venus striatula.
The bivalve Tellimya ferruginosa is often found livin… See more