Heart Urchin

This species is recorded from the Caribbean coast of Panama (see Alvarado et al., 2008).

Mortensen, T. (1951): A Monograph of the Echinoidea. V, 2. Spatangoida II. Amphisternata II. Spatangidæ, Loveniidæ, Pericosmidæ, Schizasteridæ, Brissidæ. - 593 pp., Copenhagen (C. A. Reitzel); pages: 329-331.

Alvarado, J.J., F.A. Solis-Marin & C. Ahearn. (2008). Equinodermos (Echinodermata) del Caribe Centroamericano. Rev.Biol.Trop. 56 (Suppl. 3): 37-55.

GenBank

The Echinoid Directory

World Echinoidea Database

LSID urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:158067

Echinocardium atropos (Lamarck, 1816) (subjective junior synonym)
Moera atropos (Lamarck, 1816) (misspelling for Moira atropos)
Moera lachesis Michelin, 1855 (subjective junior synonym)
Moira atropus (misspelling for Moira atropos)
Schizaster atropos (Lamarck, 1816) (subjective junior synonym)
Spatangus atropos Lamarck, 1816 (transferred to Moira)

Moira atropos (Lamarck)

Spatangus atropos Lamarck, 1816:32. [For a synonymy, see Mortensen, 1951:329. Chesher, 1963, described the feeding mechanism; and Moore and Lopez, 1966, the ecology and productivity.]

This species lives in the same mud fields with Paraster doederleini Chesher, P. cf. P. floridiensis (Kier and Grant), and Brissopsis elongata Mortensen. They live buried 40–100 mm in the mud, and they can bury themselves (Plate 8: figures 8–10) beneath the surface in 12 minutes. They may bury deeper than 100 mm but, because of the mud’s great density, we were not able to dig deeper with our hands in search of them.

This species has previously been reported from the coast of North Carolina south to the coast of Brazil from littoral depths to 145 meters.

Distribution extends northward of the Carolinian subprovince of Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras