Beachgoers in Cornwall fix quite the surprise this past weekend when hundreds of the tennis - ball - sized shipboard soldier invertebrate recognise as sea Irish potato suddenly appeared on the shoring .
Penzance local Rosie Hendricks was strolling along the water at Wherrytown when she and her family first spotted the mass stranding . She toldthe BBCthat she had never seen anything like it before and “ was n’t certain what they were ” .
Yet despite being a rarefied sight for the general world , these strange puppet are in fact fantastically coarse in moderate coastal waters around the Earth and off Britain and Ireland in particular – they ’re simply hidden in the sand most of the time . Also do it as philia urchin due to their recognizable material body , the animals Ms Hendricks meet go to the speciesEchinocardium cordatum , from the urchin familyLoveniidae . E. cordatumlive inside tunnels that they cut into 10 to 15 centimeters ( 4 to 6 inch ) deep into the sand on the sea floor at water deepness down to about 200 meters ( 656 foot ) . Just like their relatives , sand dollars and ocean stars , sea potato have tube foot that they apply to explore their environment , gather food , and pass it to a central rima oris pit .
During their estimated15 - year lifespan , the invertebrates are covered with a mat of fine yellow to brown thorn that gives them a furry - like appearance . After death , however , their body quickly shed these spines as they are batter by moving ridge and against rocks and sand , revealing the five - point star that make away their relationship to other echinoderm .
According to Plymouth University marine ecologist Professor Martin Attrill , mass strandings such as the one in Wherrytown are not unusual . Speaking to theBBC in August 2016 , come after a similar event at Long Rock beach in Cornwall , he noted that big groups ofE.cordatum accumulate in the belated summer to breed , and thus a tempest or especially turbulent wave during this period can carry a large numeral onto the shore .
If you materialise to meet one ( or an entire beach full ) of these urchin , you may appreciate them without worrying about toxic stings or grievous spikelet . Unlike some species , E.cordatum ’s spines are unlikely to pierce the pelt and do n’t hold any poison .
“ They are quite cunning , " Attrill order .
