Lets us uncover the secret life of a starfish. First of al they are not fish but echinoderms, making their nearest relatives the scary-looking sea urchin and the dreary sea cucumber. Ok this that ‘dreary’ bit is just my personal opinion, my best friend is actually thinks they are cool…. Go figure ;) They should be called seastar then and not starfish because they are not related to any fish.
So a seastar can beat X-men member Wolverine in one thing. And that is its ability to grow back their own arms and can even regenerate their entire body from just one limb and a small portion of their central disc.
As well as arms, seastar have feet, eyes and mouths. A red spot at the end of each of arm allows them to sense light and dark, while hundreds of "tube feet" on their underside help them both to scuttle along the seabed and to grip their prey as they eat (their favorites are mussels, clams and snails).
And how amazingly this carnivorous creatures eat, ejecting their stomachs through their mouths, which are also located on their underside, and using enzymes to digest their food before sliding their stomachs back inside. It's not pretty: in an episode of BBC1's latest nature series Life, David Attenborough bid us watch as hundreds of starfish devoured a dead seal pup en masse.
Watch this amazing video and let me know what YOU think.
Starfish Feeding by BBC showing seastars and marine worms feeding on dead seal flesh.
Starfish cute? Well, their table manner might be horrid but their vibrant colors definately add to their charm.
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