Red Comb Star

• Unlike the sea stars that evert their stomach over their prey, this one swallows its victims whole and afterwards expels the empty shells through its mouth.
• Its tube feet end in a point rather than a sucker: they are adapted for digging in sand, not for gripping rock.
• It is one of the largest sea stars in the Mediterranean and can exceed half a metre across.
• It is one of the largest starfish in the Mediterranean, at up to 60 cm from tip to tip.
• Its tube feet have no suckers, unlike those of the common starfish: they end in a point, and serve for digging and moving over the sand, not for gripping rock.
• That shapes the way it feeds: since it cannot pull open the valves of a bivalve, it swallows the prey whole, digests it inside its stomach and then expels the empty shell.
• Its large, spiny marginal plates give it a very pronounced edge that identifies it at a glance.
• It travels along buried just beneath the surface of the sand, leaving a visible trail.
• It is an important predator of the soft-bottom bivalves of the Mediterranean.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - endoskeleton of calcareous plates (echinoderm)

Habitat & environment

Sandy bottoms of the Mediterranean and the nearby Atlantic, from 1 to 180 m

Sources consulted: Marine Life Information Network; Ribi et al., trabajos sobre alimentación en Astropecten; Fauna Ibérica