As I was hiking out to Ka'ena Point this morning for the The Sanctuary Ocean Humpback Whale Count, I came across this rough rider in one of the tidepools. It's ha 'uke 'uke, a.k.a. helmet or shingle urchin. Unlike their sharp and spiky brethren, this urchin's spines are modified into flattened shingles or tiles that create a beautiful, if briny mosaic, nicely accented by a "skirt" of flattened spines. The skirt spines are moveable, and underneath are lots and lots of tube feet. These features combine to give them the ability to hang tight in the full-contact wave impact zone where they forage for coralline algae (Porolithon), encrusting, rock-like algae that continue the reef building when corals reach sea level, and become to fragile to handle the pounding surf. Ha 'uke 'uke can get baseball-sized, and their yellow roe is considered onolicious to Hawaiians past and present.
4 Comments
Marilyn
3/23/2017 04:49:30 pm
Thanks so much for putting this on line...looking for black blob invertebrates got me no where! We saw these by Devil's Teeth...from a distance, not walking among them. There were"a lot" on the rocks. We also saw black crabs in the same vicinity.
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Jeanne
3/23/2017 09:00:38 pm
Awesome! Always glad when the blog helps those who notice the natural world.
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Chris
1/26/2020 08:15:57 am
Thank you! We also saw these at Ka'ena, and assumed they were an echinoderm but were unfamiliar with the species. It proved surprisingly difficult to find online. Mahalo for posting these articles!
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