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Dazzling New Sea Urchin Species

a colorful sea urchin with red and white striped spikes
(Encyclopedia of Life)

Simon Coppard, a post-doctoral research fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and an Encyclopedia of Life Rubenstein Fellow specializing in echinoids often uncovers new species during his research. In 2006, he and a fellow scientist discovered and described Coelopleurus exquisitus, a previously unknown sea urchin species from New Caledonia in the South Pacific.