Diadema (genus)

Diadema

Diadema setosum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Echinodermata
Class:	Echinoidea
Order:	Diadematoida
Family:	Diadematidae
Genus:	Diadema Humpfreys, 1797
Species
Diadema palmeri Diadema savignyi Diadema setosum Diadema antillarum Diadema paucispinum Diadema mexicanum Diadema ascensionis Diadema africanum

Diadema is a genus of sea urchins of the Family Diadematidae.

Characteristics

It is one of the most abundant, widespread, and ecologically important shallow water genera of tropical sea urchins. It is found in all tropical oceans, although is ubiquitous in the Indo-Pacific region, where it inhabits depths down to 70 m. However each species inhabits roughly separate areas of ocean.

Long-spined urchins Diadema, London Zoo.

Speciation within the genus can be difficult to confirm, partly due to hybridisation, which is at least known to occur between Diadema savignyi and Diadema setosum.

The species vary in types of sea bed they inhabit, with Diadema savignyi inhabiting sandy beds and back reef where damaged; while Diadema setosum can also commonly be found among seagrass.

Fossil record

The fossil record of Diadema is extremely poor, consisting only of spines that possibly belong to the genus, some of which go back to the Miocene, 5 to 24 million years ago.

Species list

According to World Register of Marine Species :

Diadema africanum (Rodríguez, Hernández, Clemente & Coppard, 2013) (Western Africa)
Diadema antillarum (Philippi, 1845) (Gulf of Mexico)
Diadema ascensionis (Mortensen, 1909) (Central tropical Atlantic)
Diadema mexicanum (Agassiz, 1863) (West coast of tropical Americas)
Diadema palmeri (Baker, 1967) (South-west Pacific, especially New Zealand)
Diadema paucispinum (Agassiz, 1863) (Central Pacific, and possibly North Indian ocean and other zones)
Diadema savignyi (Michelin, 1845) -- (Tropical Indo-Pacific)
Diadema setosum (Leske, 1778) -- (Tropical Indo-Pacific)
Diadema principeana Weisbord, 1934 † (taxon fossile, Éocène tardif des Caraïbes)
Diadema vetus Lambert, 1931c † (taxon fossile, début du Miocène en Afrique du nord)

References

Bibliography

Nyawira A. Muthiga and Timothy R. McClanahan, "Diadema", in John M. Lawrence, Sea Urchins: Biology and Ecology, London, Elsevier, 2013.
Lessios, H. A.; B. D. Kessing; John S. Pearse (2001). "Population structure and speciation in tropical seas. Global phylogeography of the sea urchin Diadema". Evolution. 55 (5): 955–975. doi:10.1554/0014-3820(2001)055[0955:PSASIT]2.0.CO;2. PMID 11430656.
Edge of reef

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