Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 13
Fire urchin,
Astropyga radiata
. These urchins are close relatives of ours, even
though they do not seem to resemble us in the least.
Several other great branches of the tree of life, more remote from us than
the echinoderms, are represented in abundance on the seafl oor of the Lem-
beh Strait. One of them is the great phylum Arthropoda, made up of the
animals with jointed legs.
Members of this phylum swarm everywhere on the bottom at Lembeh.
Decorator crabs lurch out of their hiding places like camoufl aged tanks
whenever a diver poses a threat. Their swollen legs, covered with carefully
groomed mini-gardens of sponges and small algae, look like the limbs of
some body builder who has gone overboard on doses of growth hormone.
