Mysterious pathogen turns sea urchins into skeletons (4 photos)

A sudden epidemic engulfed the Mediterranean and Red Sea and led to the mass death of sea urchins. Healthy in just a couple of days echinoderms turn into skeletons.





Researchers noticed the first signs of hedgehog plague in Mediterranean Sea at the beginning of the year. An invasive species of hedgehogs in the waters near Greece and Turkey began to get sick en masse. From there, the epidemic seems to spread south through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea. From thousands black sea urchins Diadema setosum remained in the Gulf of Aqaba only bones.

“This is a quick and violent death with the loss of a huge tissue volume. In just two days, a healthy sea urchin turns into skeleton with massive tissue loss. Some corpses wash up on the shore but most sea urchins are devoured completely, ”said the zoologist Omri Bronstein.






Scientists do not yet know exactly what disease caused mass extinction, but they suspect that the cause lies in the ciliary parasite. A single-celled microorganism in 1983 destroyed the entire population of sea urchins in the Caribbean. Before the appearance of the parasite The Caribbean flourished tropical reefs, but after the disappearance of sea urchins their reefs were filled with blooming algae, blocking out the sunlight. Then killed about 90% of the region's corals. The disease was identified only after after the second wave of the epidemic hit the Caribbean in 2022.



Sea urchins are reef gardeners as they feed on algae and do not allow them to "suffocate" the corals. Threat to Red corals important, both locally and globally. The Gulf of Aqaba is known for its many dive sites popular tourist destination. The corals here have evolved to high temperatures and salinity over millions of years, they are more resistant to temperature fluctuations caused by climate change.



To prevent the destruction of all populations of sea urchins in Red and Mediterranean Seas Need Urgent Cultivation Measures uninfected hedgehog populations that can be returned to the oceans after end of the epidemic. Otherwise, after a short time all the population of sea urchins in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea will become sick and die, writes Live Science.