English

A spatangoid, Spatangus purpureus

Noun

spatangoid ‎(plural spatangoids)

1. (zoology) Any echinoderm of the order Spatangoida, of heart urchins.
   • 1983, Ulrich Lehmann, Fossil Invertebrates, page 292,

     The enlarged rear interambulacrum on the oral side of holasteroids and spatangoids is known as the plastron.

   • 2003, Gunther J. Eble, Developmental Morphospaces and Evolution, James P. Crutchfield, Peter Schuster (editors), Evolutionary Dynamics, page 47,

     Spatangoids constitute a monophyletic group of heart urchins that appears in the early Cretaceous (145 M.Y. ago) and ranges to the Recent.

   • 2010, Kenichi Kanazawa, Adaptive evolution in Cenozoic spatangoid echinoids, Mike Reich, Joachim Reitner, Vanessa Roden, Ben Thuy (editors), Echinoderm Research 2010: 7th European Conference on Echinoderms, Göttingen, page 61,

     Oval tests with specific ventral morphology for efficient burrowing allowed spatangoids to burrow deeply in sand to avoid gastropod predation.

Synonyms

• (any species of Spatangoida): heart urchin