Sea Urchins

Overview

A close-up look at sand urchins and rock urchins. At the seashore, a man digs up a sand urchin. We look closely. He sets it back in the sand, and it burrows out of sight. Its intestines take nutrients out of sand. Using magnification 200,000 times normal size, we see a rock urchin's spines with suckers on the end; a drawing illustrates how they work. A sea urchin walks toward a rock. We see three-fingered jaws—pedicellaria at the end of flexible stems—take in algae and other bits. We also see cilia less than 0.001 ml in length; their motion constant, creating whirlpools. On the shore again, we watch the setting sun. Occasional titles in French tell us what to watch for.

Details

Status

Released

Release date

January 1, 1929

Original language

French

Spoken languages

French

Countries

France

Production

Films Diamant

Director

Jean Painlevé

Budget

Not recorded

Revenue

Not recorded

IMDb

tt0130168