Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The variation ("polymorphism", in this case, a "color morph") most commonly found is pure blue, dark blue, or light blue, although observers find the aqua, purple, or orange variation throughout the ocean. These sea stars may grow up to 30 cm (11.8 in) in diameter, with rounded tips at each of the arms; some individuals may bear lighter or ...
They commonly have 5 rays (occasionally 4–6). The rays are smooth and appear smooth due to the lack of pedicellariae and spines. The species is relatively small; the diameter is usually over 8 cm and rarely gets larger than 12 cm. [ 2 ] As with all seastars the blood star has a madreporite which can be seen in the image below.
The animal remains stationary while the ray, using its tube feet for purchase, pulls and twists itself away from the disc until the tissue connecting the two breaks. The separated ray is known as a "comet" and a new disc and a number of new rays start to grow on the damaged surface, a process that takes about six months to complete.
It is sometimes known as the blue seastar or tan starfish, but both these names are also used for other species (e.g., blue seastar for Linckia laevigata). It is native to the eastern Pacific Ocean where it ranges from the Gulf of California and Magdalena Bay (Mexico) to northwest Peru , including various eastern Pacific island groups such as ...
M. aequalis is both an omnivore and a predator and will scavenge for dead animals and detritus. As well as feeding on algae, it preys on tunicates (such as sea pork), sea pens, sponges, bryozoans, brachiopods and polychaete worms. In its turn it is hunted by the larger morning sun star. It can move at the rate of 40 cm (16 in) per minute, which ...
Goniasteridae are usually middle-sized sea stars with a characteristic double range of marginal plates bordering the disk and arms. Most of them have five arms, often short and triangular, around a broad central disc; many species are pentagonal or subpentagonal, covered densely with granular, seed-like protuberances, hence the name of the ...
This order contains mostly deep or cold seas sea stars, often with a wide distribution (sometimes global). They have a pentagonal or star shape, with between 5 and 15 arms. Their skeleton is weakly developed, which confers them a good flexibility, and numerous papillae on the aboral surface allow them to breathe in poorly oxygenated waters.
Forcipulatids share with the brisingid sea stars distinctive pedicellariae, consisting of a short stalk with three skeletal ossicles. Unlike that group, however, the forcipulatids tend to have more robust bodies. [1] The order includes some well-known species, such as the common starfish, Asterias rubens. This order can be commonly found from ...