Sunflower Sea Star
Pycnopodia helianthoides · Echinoderm
One of the largest starfish in the world, up to 1 m across and about 5 kg, with 16 to 24 arms and a soft, velvety body of orange, red, brown or purple, once common from Alaska to southern California on bottoms rich in kelp, sand or rock. It hunts at a metre a minute on 15,000 tube feet and eats sea urchins above all, then mussels, clams, snails, abalone, crabs and sea cucumbers, which keeps the kelp forests healthy; it sheds an arm to escape and grows it back in a few weeks. Since 2013 a wasting disease has wiped out most of them, and it is now critically endangered.
- Danger
- Harmless
- How it is met
- Alone, day and night
- Size
- Medium
- In winter
- Active in winter
Where it lives
Sources
Open it in Biomes — MGS Toolbox