Red Starfish

• It can fully regrow a lost arm, and a fragment carrying part of the central disc is enough to rebuild an entire animal.
• Its striking red, which at the surface looks like the worst possible camouflage, turns dark grey from a few metres down, where red light no longer reaches.
• It has no functional anus: it expels its waste through the mouth, as many sea stars do.
• This is the deep red starfish seen on any Mediterranean dive, and one of the most photographed animals in the sea.
• Unlike other starfish, it does not attack bivalves: it feeds on the film of sponges, bryozoans and detritus coating the rock, everting its stomach over it.
• It regrows lost arms easily, and individuals with arms of differing lengths are a common sight.
• It has been studied as a source of bioactive compounds; its saponins show antitumour activity in laboratory assays.
• Collecting it for souvenirs is banned in several Mediterranean countries.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - endoskeleton of calcareous plates (echinoderm)

Habitat and environment

Rocky bottoms, meadows and sands of the Mediterranean, from 1 to 250 m

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinaster_sepositus