Grace Common Sea Star

Grace Richards

Mrs. Cook Science

Friday, October 16, 2015

Sea Star

Asterias forbesi

The Common Sea Star, or Asterias forbesi, has five-part radial symmetry. It lives in shallow, rocky areas with a sand bottom, in salty waters of the Southeastern Atlantic Ocean, and usually has five pointed arms, with yellowish purple coloring. The Sea Star is classified in the Domain Eukaryote, the Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Ehinodermata, and the Class Asterozoa. Its Family is Asteriidae, the Genus is Asterias, and the Species is forbesi. The Sea Star has spines all over its body and tiny tube-like feet on its underside. This organism has many adaptations to help it survive in its habitat. One of its structural adaptations is that it has tough, spiny skin to protect itself or to fend off predators. Sea Stars are ectothermic. A functional adaptation is their regeneration. When a Sea Star loses its leg, it will quickly regrow a new arm or maybe even two new arms! This is regeneration. A behavioral adaptation is how a Sea Star uses its strong tube-like feet to pry open the shell of its prey. Its diet includes a variety of animals(it is a heterotroph), due to its capacity to pry open almost any shell with its tube feet. Sea Stars are heterotrophic, and eat many organisms including snails, clams, mussels, oysters, or even barnacles. Sea Stars have few predators because of their tough, spiny skin, but some crustaceans or fish occasionally eat them. One interesting fact about the Sea Star is that it can travel a mile in about one week! Sea stars use their tiny tube-like feet to “walk.”

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