Cake Urchin

About this species

Fellaster zelandiae, which is also called a cake urchin, or the snapper biscuit, is an echinoderm of the family Arachnoididae, endemic to New Zealand. The maximum width of this type of echinoderm is 100 mm.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Fellaster zelandiae”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 95 records
February: 99 records
March: 126 records
April: 89 records
May: 102 records
June: 63 records
July: 77 records
August: 72 records
September: 98 records
October: 107 records
November: 55 records
December: 79 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 1–60 m · Deepest record: 229 m

0–10 m: 58 records
10–20 m: 29 records
20–30 m: 14 records
30–40 m: 0 records
40–50 m: 2 records
50–60 m: 3 records
60–70 m: 2 records
70–80 m: 2 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 2 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 6 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 12–19 °C

12–14 °C: 57 records
14–16 °C: 34 records
16–18 °C: 79 records
18–20 °C: 1 records

Photos

(c) Jacqui Geux, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Jacqui Geux · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Roderic Page, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Roderic Page · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Gavin White, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Tony Wills, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Colin Meurk, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) John Barkla, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Joe Dillon, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Cake Urchin, Snapper biscuit

Other scientific names: Arachnoides zelandiae, Arachnoides zeylandiae, Fellaster zealandiae

Similar species

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
502 open-data records from 1909 to 2017.
Species data updated November 2, 2026.