Diadema antillarum
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| iLong-spined sea urchin | ||||||||||||||
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 Diadema antillarum
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| Diadema antillarum (Philippi, 1845) |
Diadema antillarum is a sea urchin of the genus diadema with long black spines, it was once the most abundant and important herbivore on the coral reefs of the western Atlantic and Caribbean basin. In this role it was the main grazer that maintained the balance between algae growth and destruction.
Recently however it underwent mass mortality, with more than 97% of the urchins dying throughout the Caribbean in 1983. Since this time some Caribbean reefs have been overcome by micro-algae which stifles coral growth, it also has resulted in widespread coral disease.
D. antillarum is still in some places one of the most abundant, widespread, and ecologically important shallow water genera of tropical sea urchins. It is found in tropical oceans, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region, where it inhabits depths down to 70 m.
