Solid dark-purple urchin with large rounded primary spines, which are usually eroded. Like Goniocidaris tubaria, the secondary spines are flat and most obvious around the base of the larger spines. The species uses its blunt primary spines to wedge rigidly into crevices during the day and thus can survive in areas with heavy wave action. It feeds at night on encrusting plants and animals scraped from the reef surface.

• Max Size: 9 cm
• Sea Temperature Range: 15.3-25.2°C
• Depth: 0-80m
• Habitat: Rocky Reef

• IUCN Threat Status: Not Evaluated
• Occurrence: Common (35% of sites)
  Occurrence describes how often the species is found on surveys within its distribution. It is calculated as the % of reef sites surveyed by RLS divers across all the ecoregions in which the species has been observed
• Abundance: Few (5 per transect)
  Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.