In fact, there are many of them. And there are very sedentary animals called starfish. There are more than one and a half thousand species alone.
And the starfish lives in different places, and prefers different depths. From shallow water to great depths: it is known that the Soviet expedition vessel “Vityaz” found a starfish at a depth of about 10,000 meters! But sea stars cannot swim. They walk with their legs, very slowly – about 15 centimeters per hour, and they also grab prey with them. However, there are those that swallow prey whole, turning their stomachs inside out, so that they can then digest their lunch all day long.
The starfish has a beautiful name, and the names of its body parts also reveal human interest and love for this beautiful creature. It has rays – from five to fifty, their tips glow. And some starfish are called “crowns of thorns” – because of their thorns.
Sea stars are mostly of different sexes: there is a starfish He, there is a starfish She. And according to observations, in the cold waters of the polar seas, they all show care for their offspring. The female, leaning on the bottom, hangs like a canopy over the clutch of eggs, following the instinct to protect, save, and give warmth. And ovoviviparous species carry their “little stars” on their backs, protecting them from predators. The female creates something like a bell in which the young hide. And she carries them until they grow up.
The starfish is one of the most ancient animals. In fossil form, they can be seen 400 million years ago. Man became acquainted with them early, frescoes depicting stars are known. The only thing these creatures do not like and have not been able to adapt to is desalinated water, which is why there are so few of them in the seas known to us: the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea. Starfish live quite a long time – about 40 years.
For a person, a starfish is a joy to behold. Although they can also cause devastation: half a century ago, there was a massive attack of “crowns of thorns” on the Great Barrier Reef. The reef “lost weight” by 80 kilometers per year. It was eaten by the stars, leaving only the skeleton of the corals – Mamai simply passed by! The whole world fought the scourge, they came up with everything – nothing helped for ten years. They wanted to “send” sea newts to the stars, but they know how to fight them, as if impaling them on their sharp grater. But it turned out that mollusks capable of stopping the invasion are not enough. They were already talking about an ecological catastrophe, numerous options were tried. But – suddenly one day everything stopped by itself. What happened then – they still do not understand.
The lip of the starfish is not stupid, in a figurative sense, of course. Crustaceans, fish, algae, mussels, polyps. They love oysters very much, so they are considered pests on underwater farms. They themselves are rarely attacked, and everyone knows their ability to regenerate – rays grow back. And in one genus (Linckia) the whole body can grow from a ray.
Some stars cast off a beam on their own in case of danger, so that they can grow it back later and be fine. And being fine is also being beautiful. Beauty is indescribable, so I dare not describe it…
