English edit

 
A spatangoid, Spatangus purpureus

Noun edit

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”, in 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”, in 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 edit