Sea Stars

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There are more than 1800 different kinds of sea stars that inhabit all seas and oceans, at all depths of our planet. Sea stars have a body that looks as if it could have fallen directly from the starry heavens and range in size from 1-65 cms with usually 5 pointed arms but as many as 44.

Sea stars are not fish, as in starfish, they do not have a skeleton, gills, or fins. Sea stars are unique among creatures in that they are bloodless, instead having a seawater vascular system that gives them a hydraulic ability to cling to surfaces and pry open prey. Sea stars can move in any direction on “tube feet” located underneath the arms which are sensitive to touch and temperature changes. Sea star arms have a light sensor “eye” at the tip and have an incredible ability to regenerate if damaged or severed. In addition, several arms can grow into new sea stars, often brightly colored with mosaics and mottling for either camouflage or as a warning of defensive toxicity. A sea star amazingly can push its stomach out of itself through its mouth to ingest victims too large to swallow. Procreation takes place outside of both sexes in their watery domain as sperm from the male washes over millions of eggs from the female.