.Deformity_Type A

Description:

Type A deformity idue to pollution in T. g. elatensis in Eilat, Red Sea: It showed mainly as exaggrated H/D ratio. Here, a living urchin of ca 35 mm diameter, showed H/D = 1.2 proportion. This deformity was shown by over 1/2 of the population of T. g. elatensis in the shore next to the outfall of hot and saline seawater ejected from a combined power and desalination plant. Another picture shows the dried out test of a similar deformed urchin showing a skeletal abnormality such as "pinched" ambulacra, simultaneusly in all five ambulacra. A detailed descriotion of these deformities is shown in Dafni, 1980 and in Dafni & Erez 1987a,b