Mystery pathogen is stripping sea urchins of their flesh and turning them to skeletons — and it's...

A sudden and deadly epidemic sweeping across the Red Sea has killed an entire species of sea urchin, stripping their flesh and turning them into skeletons.

Just two months ago, thousands of black sea urchins (Diadema setosum) lived in the Gulf of Aqaba, in the northern tip of the Red Sea, keeping the corals there healthy by snacking on excess algae. Now, only their skeletons remain, after their tissue was consumed by a mysterious pathogen.

"It's a fast and violent death: within just two days a healthy sea urchin becomes a skeleton with massive tissue loss," Omri Bronstein, a senior lecturer in Zoology at Tel Aviv University, said in a statement. "While some corpses are washed ashore, most sea urchins are devoured while they are dying and unable to defend themselves, which could speed up contagion by the fish who prey on them."