Meoma ventricosa
Family Brissidae

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Note: Beam trawls used in the Transect Program do not adequately collect burrowing organisms,
so the distribution and abundance of this species is not well documented.

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This massive, heavy, red-brown burrowing echinoid is a type of heart urchin.
The dense covering of short, stout spines aid in the organism's mobility beneath the sediment surface.
On the Charleston Transect it was only collected using a dredge, suggesting organisms were buried.
Test length is ~18 cm -- as long as a person's hand!


The pentagonal (5-pointed) radial symmetry is easy to see, however this species is
characterized by having only 4 petals, which are depressed rather than raised.

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