Sea stars, commonly known as starfish, are fascinating creatures. According to National Geographic, there are 2000 species of sea stars. While five-pointed sea stars are quite common, hence the name starfish, some varieties have up to forty arms.
Sea stars live exclusively in salt or brackish water. Please don’t remove them from the water, or they may suffocate. Beware. Even if you intend to hold it underwater, sunscreen on your hands can damage them.
We love spotting them on the seafloor, or finding them dried up at the water’s edge. There’s something magical about them. But wait! It gets weird. They can digest food in a very strange way that sounds like an alien movie. Most sea stars have two cardiac-stomach sacs. When the sea star feeds, one sac is expelled from the starfish’s protective body and slithers inside a shell to eat the animal living there (an invertebrate). Then it slithers back into its scaly sea star shell where the second stomach finishes the digestion.
They have eyes, but not like ours. Their eyes are embedded in their arms. The biodiversity of life, right under the waves at the beach, is truly amazing.
I enjoy including the wonder of the sea in my books. I hope you enjoy it too.
