Cidaroida is an order of primitive sea urchin

Sea urchin

Sea urchins or urchins are small, spiny, globular animals which, with their close kin, such as sand dollars, constitute the class Echinoidea of the echinoderm phylum. They inhabit all oceans. Their shell, or "test", is round and spiny, typically from across. Common colors include black and dull...

s, the only living order of the subclass Perischoechinoidea

Perischoechinoidea

Perischoechinoidea is a subclass of primitive sea urchins that were abundant in the Palaeozoic seas. However, the great majority of species died out during the Mesozoic, as the more advanced euechinoid sea urchins became common...

. All other orders of this subclass became extinct during the Mesozoic

Mesozoic

The Mesozoic era is an interval of geological time from about 250 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. It is often referred to as the age of reptiles because reptiles, namely dinosaurs, were the dominant terrestrial and marine vertebrates of the time...

, and were even more primitive than the living forms.

Their primary spines are much more widely separated than in other sea urchins, and they have no gills. Other primitive features include relatively simple plates in the test, and the ambulacral plates continuing as a series across the membrane that surrounds the mouth.