Starfish can also be called “Sea stars” and are echinoderms of the class “Asteroidea”. Brittle stars, also often called starfish, are really a diffrent family of creatures although related.

There are more than one thousand eight hundred species of starfish. They live in all oceans even arctic and antarctic, from shallow to very deep.

It is well known that a starfish can regenerate a missing limb, but it is less well known that this ability varies with different species. Different species have different feeding habits and some specialise although not all.

Although starfish are well known for their 5-way symetry when adults, they are bilateral when larval, and not all species have 5 legs. Some species have up to fifty legs!

The body of starfish has “tube feet” which are used for both feeding and movement, as well as a basic circulation system. On the end of each leg is a microscopic eye which can see basic light, dark and movement. Some starfish excrete poisons.

Some, but not all, starfish can eat by moving one of their two stomachs outside their body. This can be used to force open shellfish as well as enabling them to eat prey far bigger than their mouth size. However, starfish are not all totally carnivorous and some of them eat algae and other material.

A starfish has nerves but no brain. It can taste and smell with the ends of their feet, as well as being able to detect temprature, touch and orientation.

Starfish can reproduce both sexually and aesexually. Some species start off as male and later become female, some are both at once, and some divided into male individuals and female individuals.

Some starfish can grow a whole new body from a single arm. They live from between about 10 years to about 35 years, with the larger species living longer typically.

Here are some beautiful photos of starfish . . .

Two starfish, beautiful and geometric.

Starfish on a sublimely beautiful beach in the Maldives.

A beautiful collection of starfish, coral and seashells, delicate and pale, organic and fascinating!

“Explore” . . . “My life is like a stroll on the beach, as near to the edge as I can go”. A powerfully evocative image bringing to mind exploration of remote beaches in beautiful exotic lands . . .

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More than 600 Starfish Images (which you can buy if you wish as posters)

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