Coelopleurus floridanus

It is a sea urchin in the family Arbaciidae that has been studied from deep marine waters off the coast of Florida. It belongs to the genus Coelopleurus, a group of distinctive deep-water echinoids.

It belongs to the Arbaciidae, the same family as the genus Arbacia — including Arbacia punctulata, a species widely used in biology laboratories. This makes Coelopleurus floridanus a relative of one of the best-known experimental urchins.

Deep-water echinoids like this one were typically collected by dredging and trawling from research vessels off Florida. The genus Coelopleurus was later treated in detail in Theodore Mortensen's monumental 'Monograph of the Echinoidea' in the early 20th century.

The genus Coelopleurus includes species characteristic of deeper shelf and slope environments, and this species has been recorded from deep waters off Florida. Its occurrence there made it part of the fauna documented during 19th- and 20th-century deep-sea survey expeditions.