#Sea Stars

[rapidpunches]

Horseshoe crab and some hitchhikers :)

[a-book-of-creatures]

Mr Creatures, what is the most shaped creature of them all?

Oh but there are so many of them ;_;

Off the top of my head

These starfishes / sea stars from the Ortus Sanitatis

This fish from Albertus Magnus

This grumpy dragon from Scheuchzer

This turtle from Thomas de Cantimpré

These sponges from Olaus Magnus

[nemfrog]

Plate II. Discovery reports. 1941. Falkland Islands,

Internet Archive

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Uncharismatic Fact of the Day

Why do starfish always win? Because they're a-head! A new study of starfish genes has revealed that what we thought were arms are actually just extensions of the starfish's head, each containing DNA corresponding to various areas of the brain. This suggests that, at some point in their evolution sea stars had a torso, but lost it and became only disembodied heads. You can read more about this fascinating discovery here!

(Image: The star of the discovery, the bat starfish (Patiria miniata) by Olivia Johnson)

If you like what I do, consider leaving a tip or buying me a ko-fi!

[snototter]

A chocolate chip sea star (Protoreaster nodosus) in Sulawesi, Indonesia

by Bernard Dupont

[heartnosekid]

joyyfulkawaiishop on ig

[antiqueanimals]

Seashells, Crabs, and Sea Stars. Written by Christine Kump Tibbitts. Illustrated by Linda Garrow. 1998.

[colorsoutofearth]

Starfish Beach, Panama

Photo by Juan Carlos Munoz

[thedisablednaturalist]

[highways-are-liminal-spaces]

A mottled sea star exposed at low tide

May 27, 2023

[samarajethwa]

Carcinisation of the moon

[dougdimmadodo]

Bat Star (Patiria miniata)

Family: Cushion Star Family (Asterinidae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Unassessed

A small species of starfish found in a variety of habitats across the Pacific coast of North America, the Bat Star is named for the thin membrane that runs between its "arms", which has been compared to the wings of bats. Highly variable in appearance, members of this species are usually red with five arms but may also be yellow, brown, pink, blue or black and have anywhere from 4 to 9 arms, especially after enduring an injury or an awkward regeneration of a lost limb. As with all starfishes a Bat Star's arms are lined with chemical-sensitive cells and small light-detecting organs comparable to crude eyes, and through the use of these organs (as well as the numerous tiny tube-like feet lining their undersides) they crawl slowly along the seafloor in search of algae, carrion and immobile or slow-moving animals; lacking teeth or jaws, they feed by enveloping prey with their arms and then extending their stomachs out of a small mouth in their centre, externally digesting their food and absorbing the nutrients released as a result. Each individual Bat Star is either male or female, and when the waters around them are sufficiently warm females freely release huge number of tiny eggs into the water to be externally fertilized by gametes released by males.

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Image Source: Here

[nemfrog]

Plate VIII. Asteroidea. Discovery reports. 1941. Falkland Islands.

Internet Archive

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

YouTube Short. Eye Contact. Open Captions Auto generated closed captions.

Turns out that Starfish (sea stars) are all head and stomach, with no legs (according to what scientists have discovered about their gene activation)

[rattyexplores]

Lovely brown seastar.

16/05/23 - Astropecten sp.

QLD:CQC - Emu Park, rocky shoreline

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Trying to write during a windstorm is basically playing chicken with a potential power outage. Even in spite of autosave I find myself hitting the save button every few minutes just in case. I just barely won last night, finishing for the evening and doing my final save about five minutes before the power flickered a few times--and then went out for good.

Thankfully it came back on overnight, and I can now tell you that I added 4,534 words to The Everyday Naturalist manuscript yesterday, for a current total of 34,635. Not only did I get Chapter 3 (Getting Started With Nature Identification) done, but I am now well into Chapter 4 on How to Identify Animals.

Today is going to have to be an errands-and-appointments day, so I likely won't be writing, but I have tomorrow slated as another mostly-work-on-the-book day. My plan is to get as much of Chapter 4 done as I can, and go from there. It's going to be stormy all week, though, so we'll see how many breaks I'm forced to take due to outages again.