The scientific family name for a group of ancient sea urchins characterized by thick, often flattened spines and simple test structure.
From Cidaris (genus name) plus -idae (family suffix). This taxonomic family has been recognized since the early classification of echinoderms in the 1800s.
Cidaridae is one of the oldest sea urchin families still alive today, making them 'elder statesmen' of the ocean floor who watched evolution happen around them for hundreds of millions of years.
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