The depths of the oceans are home to many amazing sea creatures. Starfish is surely one of them. These interesting facts about the starfish, will not only amaze you, but give you some good information as well.
Like A Star on the Ocean Floor
Starfish! This marine animal has always generated immense interest owing to its radial symmetry with five or more arms. The starfish or the ‘sea star’ gets its name from its star-shaped body.
Did You Know ?
The starfish is not actually a fish. It is in fact an echinoderm belonging to the class Asteroidea. These creature can live for 35 years in the wild.
Starfish Species
About 2,000 species of this marine animal are found in every ocean across the world; maximum of these inhabiting the Indian and Pacific oceans. Starfish are found in shallow waters. . Let us take a look at some more interesting facts about the wonderful sea star.
Did You Know?
Because they are symmetrical by five points, just like sea urchins, starfish are also called ‘Phylum Echinodermata’.
If you have ever encountered a starfish and turned it over, you will find hundreds of projections on its underside. These are known as tube feet, which serve two basic functions – it provides movement around in the water, and the other it help the starfish to open up scallops or clams.
Two Stomachs
An interesting fact about the starfish is that it has two stomachs. The cardiac stomach can help the starfish engulf food outside its body. When the cardiac stomach comes back into the body, the food in it is transferred to the pyloric stomach.
Mouth of a Starfish
Have you ever tried locating the mouth of a starfish? It is located on the ventral surface, underneath the upper surface.
The sea star with five arms is the most commonly spotted one. However, there are species that have 10, 20, or even up to 40 arms!
Eye Spot on the Tip of Each Arm
The starfish has an eye spot at the end of each arm. Although the starfish cannot see the details, the eye spot enables the starfish to view movement and differentiate between light and dark.
Most starfish have a spiky or leathery surface, depending upon the species. The crown-of-thorns starfish is known for its thorny spines that are present all over its body. This tough covering on the upper side of the body acts as protection from its predators, as it is made up of calcium carbonate plates with tiny spines.
A Unique Anatomy
In addition to no brain, these sea animals do not have a single drop of blood in their body. Instead, they have a water vascular system, and sea water is pumped into the body through a sieve plate. The anus of this invertebrate is located on top of its body.
Amazingly, in case a starfish loses its arm, it is capable of regenerating the same in about a year! This is extremely useful when the sea star feels threatened by a predator, as it can lose the arm and escape. Sometimes, an entirely new starfish can grow from one arm. This phenomenon takes some time and occurs as most of the vital organs are stored in the arms.
Feeding Technique
These marine animals have a unique way of feeding on their prey. To be able to eat a prey that is larger than its mouth opening, the starfish wraps its arms strongly around the clams or shells, and then jerks it open. Then it pushes the stomach out into the shell and eats up the prey, and finally retracts the stomach back in through the mouth.
Flexible Reproduction System
An interesting fact about starfish is that they can reproduce sexually and asexually. Eggs and sperms are sent off by the females and males respectively, in the mating season.
A female starfish is capable of producing around a million eggs at one time.
These facts about starfish tell us quite a story about the kind of life that exists beneath the sea. Complex, yet beautiful, life beneath the sea has a completely new world in store for us.
These facts about starfish tell us quite a story about the kind of life that exists beneath the sea. Complex, yet beautiful, life beneath the sea has a completely new world in store for us.
