Long-spined sea urchin
Amazing fact
The orange eye-like feature on top of a long-spined sea urchin is its anus.
八丈植物公園・八丈ビジターセンター
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The orange eye-like feature on top of a long-spined sea urchin is its anus.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Long-spined sea urchin
- Scientific name
- Diadema setosum
- Japanese name
- ガンガゼ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Class
- Echinoidea
- Order
- Diadematoida
- Family
- Diadematidae
- Genus
- Diadema
It lives from south of the Boso Peninsula and Sagami Bay across wide areas of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
It lives in shallow water on rocky reefs and coral reefs, hiding in the shade of rocks.
How the Long-spined sea urchin lives
They do most of their foraging and feeding at night. Their main food is algae. Long-spined sea urchin shrimp sometimes perch on their spines.
Western Australian Museumいおワールドかごしま水族館Basic data
- Range
- South of the Boso Peninsula and Sagami Bay, and the Indo-Pacific
Where the Long-spined sea urchin has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ガンガゼ
- 简体中文
- 刺冠海胆
- 繁體中文
- 刺冠海膽
- 한국어
- 가시왕관성게
- Español
- Erizo diadema
- Français
- Oursin-diadème à anneau orange
- Deutsch
- Gewöhnlicher Diademseeigel
- Italiano
- Riccio diadema indo-pacifico
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — ガンガゼChecked: 2026-11-04
- Western Australian Museum — long spined sea urchinChecked: 2026-11-07
- いおワールドかごしま水族館 — ガンガゼChecked: 2026-11-07
- 八丈植物公園・八丈ビジターセンター — ガンガゼChecked: 2026-11-07
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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