Common starfish
Asterias rubens
- Scientific name
- Asterias rubens
- Group
- Echinoderms (starfish, urchins...)
- Rarity
- Common
- Where to see it
- Temperate Atlantic / English Channel, Cold / polar waters
- Conservation status (IUCN)
- Not evaluated
Did you know?
It pushes its stomach out through its mouth to digest mussels and other shellfish outside its body, and can regrow a lost arm — or even regenerate a whole animal from a single arm.
What defines this group — Echinoderms (starfish, urchins...)
Starfish, urchins and sea cucumbers: a five-fold symmetry found nowhere else in the animal kingdom.
- The body is arranged in fives around a centre: no head, no front, no back.
- They move on hundreds of tube feet driven by water under pressure.
- Many regrow a lost arm; some starfish can rebuild themselves from a single one.