A Sea Urchin Odyssey

About this video

Sex and the spiky sea urchin.

TED Ed and the creators of the Plankton Chronicles explore how life begins in the deep oceans through the story of a young sea urchin.

For many of the organisms across the plankton world, early larval stages of life bare little resemblance to the fully developed adult stages. From the perspective of the spiky sea urchin, life begins in a very different form as pluteus larva, a tiny planktonic rocketship which drifts through the deep ocean feeding on algae.

Reproduction is very strange at this level, with some organisms bypassing sexual reproduction altogether and others having the ability to release both sperm and eggs cells.

You can delve deeper into the life of the sea urchin via the Plankton Chronicles or explore the TED Ed learning materials that accompany this video.