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Starfish Feet

Sea stars creep along the seafloor using hundreds of little tube feet. These tube...

slideshow

Seamounts, A Deep-Sea Habitat

Thousands of seamounts—most of them undersea volcanoes—tower above the muddy...

Photo

Basket Star

Deep sea dwellers, the basket star uses its long, twisting arms to snag zooplankton...

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One Becomes Two

The two new parts of the original Astrophyton animal just weeks after it...

Photo

Brittle Star Splits

A large basket star, Astrophyton muricatum, pulls itself apart into two new...

Article

Brittle Star Splits

Splitting your body in two is a feat only a few animals can complete, and now...

video

Oil’s Impact on Marine Invertebrates

In the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill, what is the effect of oil on invertebrates...

Personal Perspectives

The Discovery of Two Extreme Sea Stars

Recently, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History researcher Chris Mah and...

Personal Perspectives

How Coastal Seagrass Feeds the Deep

It is a well-known fact that for animals living in the deep sea, food can be...

A Brittle Star May Be a Coral’s Best Friend

Five thousand feet (1,524 meters) beneath the sea in the Gulf of Mexico, an...

Personal Perspectives

On Biodiversity: Understanding its Meaning and Importance

The ocean is home to a phenomenal diversity of marine organisms. They have evolved...

Article

A Plague of Sea Stars

Sea stars are important members of marine ecosystems, especially in the tropics. We...