7 cool things about the sea star

Sea stars are more commonly known as star fish, although they’re not fish at all. Let’s find out what makes them so cool.

  1. Not a fish

Technically, the sea star is not a fish and scientists don’t want us to call them star fish. This underwater creature doesn’t even look like a fish – he doesn’t have fins, scales, or gills – and he is more closely related to sea urchins and sand dollars.

2. Heartless and brainless

The sea star doesn’t have a brain or a heart. He doesn’t even have blood to transfer nutrients to the different parts of his body – seawater does this important function for the sea star. It might come as a surprise to learn that although he doesn’t have a brain, he does have eyes at the ends of his arms.

3. Alien-like feeding

If you think this creature can’t get any weirder, read this. The sea star’s stomach can come out of his mouth, envelope his prey, digest it, and then go back inside his body through his mouth. How crazy is that?

4. Rainbow colours

The sea star might exhibit strange behaviour, but he definitely charms people with his bright colours, which can be anything from red to blue, orange to purple, and even white. And some sea stars have spots, others have stripes, or a combination thereof. There are about 2,000 different species of sea stars in the world’s oceans.

5. Many arms

The sea star is not limited to the variety with five arms. Some of them have more and can have up to 20 or 40 arms. What’s also amazing about sea stars’ arms is that they can regrow them when a limb is severed, but it might take a while.

6. Now you see me, now you don’t

To protect himself from predators, the sea star camouflages himself between the corals in the seabed. His protective skin is bony and calcified and some sea stars have spines on their skin to deter predators.

7. Solitary animal

The sea star is not your typical party animal. He prefers to live his life on his own. The only time when sea stars get together is when it is time to mate – twice a year.