There is a common small animal on land, slow-moving, sluggish, often walking slowly in the woods and grass, with small beetles and link animals as its main food, and its favorite food is ants and termites. When it encounters a predator or is frightened, it bends its head downwards, curls up into a small round ball of thorns, wraps its head and limbs, and rushes out with hard thorns to protect itself.
Erinaceus amurensis|muffinn/flickr
What we want to introduce below is an interesting creature living in the ocean, and the hedgehog has a lot of similarities, but also full of thorns, also known as thorn pot, sea hedgehog, is a more common invertebrate in the ocean, in the animal classification, belongs to the echinoderm, it is the sea urchin. More than 1,000 species of sea urchins have been found in the world, and 93 species have been found in China's waters. Most sea urchins are inedible, and only a few are edible.[2] We commonly see horse manure sea urchin, purple sea urchin, light echinostem sea urchin, Ezo horse manure sea urchin and so on.
Horse dung sea urchin: Horse dung sea urchin is one of the most common sea urchin species produced in China's sea area, the appearance is more regular round, the shell is dark green, occasionally gray-brown, the spines are shorter than other sea urchins, because it looks particularly like horse feces from a distance. Horse dung sea urchins belong to small sea urchins, about 3-6 cm in diameter. The yellow color of sea urchin is bright orange. Although its name is not very good, its taste is very strong. Its best feeding season is from late spring to early summer.
Horse dung sea urchin Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus | Totti/wikimedia
Dalian purple sea urchin: The scientific name of the light echinosphere sea urchin (Mesocentrotus nudus) is very common in northern China, and it is a different species from the purple sea urchin (Anthocidaris crassispina). Because the living light echinococcus sea urchin is mostly purple-brown, it is commonly named. It is a medium-sized sea urchin, the diameter is generally 6-7cm, the maximum can reach 10cm, the thorns are longer, the sea urchin yellow of dalian purple sea urchin is pale yellow, but because of the climate and environment of the place of origin and other factors, its sea urchin yellow is more abundant and full than other purple sea urchins.
Light echinosphere sea urchin Mesocentrotus nudus | Totti/wikimedia
Sea urchins live extensively on the seafloor from the intertidal zone to thousands of meters deep, with a spherical, disc-shaped or heart-shaped body and no wrists. The endoskeletons heal each other to form a solid shell that acts as a defense. Most sea urchins have complex chewers in their mouths with teeth on them that can chew food. The digestive tract is tubular and coiled in the body. Most are hermaphrodites, developed from sea urchin larvae (long-wristed larvae), then metamorphosed into juvenile sea urchins, reaching sexual maturity after 1-2 years.
Sea urchins are marine organisms that are less adaptable to changes in salinity and can only live in high salinity seas, so they are difficult to see near river estuaries and low salinity seas, and they are very sensitive to changes in salinity.
Sea urchins prefer to inhabit reefs or crevices in the subtidal zone where seaweeds are abundant, as well as in shallow ecological areas with hard sand and mud, and have the characteristics of avoiding light and nocturnal sunrise. Some of their members live offshore, so it's easy to catch, and even diving equipment like oxygen cylinders is not needed to catch this marine life.
The feeding habits of sea urchins are extensive. Carnivorous catching worms and other small echinoderms, herbivorous algae, and those that rely on organic detritus and animal carcasses feed on. They collect the surrounding food through tube feet or thorns, and then send it into the mouth through cilia swings.
Although the sea urchin is full of thorns, but the whole body is a treasure, the sea urchin edible part is the gonads, commonly known as sea urchin yellow, orange yellow, delicious flavor. The gonads of sea urchins are well developed, and mature sea urchin gonads can account for 10-20% of the total weight of sea urchins. Sea urchin not only tastes delicious, but also has high medicinal value, the fatty acids in sea urchin eggs have a good effect on the prevention of certain cardiovascular diseases, rich in bioactive substances, can nourish the yin and nourish the kidneys, skin care, sea urchin extract bonalinine has an inhibitory effect on the growth of cancer cells [3]. Sea urchin shells can be made into wind chimes, small ornaments and other crafts. Sea urchin shells and spines are very effective in the treatment of gastritis, otitis media, duodenal ulcers and paronychia, and can be ground and then medicated.
Sea urchin yellow | sigusr0/flickr
With the improvement of people's living standards, sea urchins as an ingredient have been put on the people's table and become one of the favorite foods of the public, and the production of wild sea urchins has been unable to meet the needs of a large number of consumers who prefer sea urchins. In recent years, artificial cultivation of sea urchins has quietly emerged in some coastal provinces and cities. Artificial breeding of sea urchins is divided into two parts: seedlings and cultivation, China's scientific researchers have been able to master the artificial breeding technology of sea urchins, parent gallbladder is stimulated by the discharge of sperm and eggs after artificial insemination, fertilized eggs develop into larvae after selection and migration into large cages or cages for breeding, feeding bait to kelp and other seaweeds, breeding to reach the market specifications after harvesting.
How to pick a fresh sea urchin:
1, look: can be judged through the appearance of the sea urchin fresh, fresh sea urchin spines will move all over the body, the larger the amplitude of the stinging action, indicating that the better the freshness of the sea urchin.
2. Touch: Touch the center of the abdomen of the sea urchin with a hard object, and when the living sea urchin is stimulated by the hard object, it will contract rapidly.
How to handle and consume sea urchins:
The common way to eat sea urchins is to eat them raw, which can ensure that nutrients are not destroyed by high temperatures, and the yellow taste of sea urchins is tender and refreshing, and it is completely unaffected by the "fishy" taste. If you are still worried about the fishy taste, you can use a small amount of mustard, lemon juice and soy sauce to make a seasoning, and gently stir with the sea urchin yellow and eat it, which will give you a fresh and sweet taste, absolutely delicious.
Sea urchins can also be used for steaming, cold vegetables or cooking into soups. The elderly and children can choose sea urchin steamed eggs, which are simple and nutritious and easy to absorb. In addition, sea urchins can also be processed into alcoholic sea urchins, salted sea urchins, chilled sea urchins, sea urchin sauce and steamed canned sea urchins.
Precautions when consuming sea urchins:
Sea urchin yellow is extremely autolyzable. Sea urchin yellow will appear soft after being left in the air for half a day, indicating that it has deteriorated and cannot be eaten. Therefore, newly caught sea urchins should be placed in containers containing seawater for preservation, ready to eat. In addition, in order to ensure food safety, raw sea urchins must also be harvested from clean and pollution-free sea areas, the bacteria in polluted waters are likely to exceed the standard, after eating may cause diarrhea or food poisoning, heavy metals in polluted sea areas will also be enriched in the sea urchin, bringing certain health risks to eaters.
Avoid being blown up by sea urchin stings. Thorn is a sea urchin defense tool, hollow and easy to break, when handling fresh sea urchins must be careful, if the stab needs to be treated in time, clean the wound, remove the broken thorn, otherwise it is very easy to cause wound infection, granuloma and other symptoms.
Author: Zhou Hong Writing Director: Zou Qiangjun
bibliography:
[1] (French) Beaumont et al. French Children's Fun Encyclopedia Cute Animals: Sichuan Children's Publishing House, 2016: 70
[2] Overview of sea urchin biology Liao Yulin Aquatic Sciences 1982 No. 3
Liao Chengyi. A preliminary study on artificial seedling breeding of horse manure sea urchin[J]. Journal of Ocean University of China (Natural Science Edition), 1985(4):71-81.