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A Filter-Feeding Starfish

A many-armed, orange starfish.
(Lophelia II 2010 Expedition, NOAA-OER/BOEMRE)

An orange brisingid starfish sits on a large reef of Lophelia pertusa, cold-water corals in the Gulf of Mexico, at 450 m depth as a school of fish swims above. They have many arms—up to 20!—covered in spines, which themselves are covered with small snapping jaws called pedicellariae. By attaching their center to a surface and waving these long arms in the water, these starfish filter feed, snagging small zooplankton and other critters as they drift by.

Tags: Feeding Corals