Recently, I came across this sand star that only had four arms. What happened to its fifth arm? I wondered. Then I thought, it doesn’t matter because sea stars have the power to regenerate their limbs. This got me thinking, humans are obsessed with super powers these days. The Marvel and DC Comics movies are… [read more]
Tube feet time
This is a close-up of a sea star’s tube feet, the tiny tube-shaped appendages located on the bottom of a sea star’s arms. Tube feet help sea stars get around, albeit very slowly, but they can move thanks to these whacky style feet. More importantly, tube feet help sea stars eat because they serve as… [read more]
The sea star Olympics
With everyone going Olympic crazy these days, it seems fitting to discuss ocean athletes, but instead of talking about the already famously fast bluefin tuna, I started wondering about a much slower ocean animal…the sea star. If sea stars lined up for a race, what species would win? It seems safe to say that very… [read more]
Meet the bat star
Batman is pretty cool, but what about the bat star or Asterina miniata? A bat star is a type of sea star. You may be wondering if this sea star has bat powers. No, it doesn’t, but it does have cool webbing between its arms reminiscent of the webbing on a bat’s wings, hence the… [read more]
Evidence that gulls eat anything
Not that long ago, I wrote a post called “Feeding gulls is for the birds,” explaining the pointlessness of feeding gulls bread crumbs because they will eat anything. Now I have evidence! The above photo features a Western gull eating an ochre sea star. Dinner isn’t going down smoothly, but that doesn’t stop a gull.… [read more]
Sea stars: staying clean on the ocean floor
Staying clean on the ocean floor is tough. Shipwrecks quickly become hot new real estate for fishes seeking shelter, barnacles set up shop on everything from rocks to gray whales, and algae slowly expand their domain to pretty much anything sitting around for too long. So what’s a slow moving sea star to do? It… [read more]