A. punctulata can be found in shallow water from Massachusetts to Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula, from Texas to Florida in the Gulf of Mexico, the coast from Panama to French Guiana, and in the Lesser Antilles, usually on rocky, sandy, or shelly bottoms.

[2] A. punctulata is omnivorous, consuming a wide variety of prey[3] although Karlson[4] classified it as a generalized carnivore.

[5] For more than a century, developmental biologists have valued the sea urchin as an experimental model organism.

[6][7] For decades, the sea urchin embryo has been used to establish the chromosome theory of heredity, the description of centrosomes, parthenogenesis, and fertilization.

[13][14] Arbacia punctulata is also a model organism of marine sediment toxicity[15][16] and for sperm study.