Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Seeing stars: Linckia multifora

Sea Star (Linckia multifora)

What: Sea star (Linckia multifora), family Ophidiasteridae. Common names include: Spotted Linckia; Multi-pore Sea Star; Multicolor Sea Star.

Members of this genus have cylindrically shaped rays, and skin that has a rough, granular surface.
They come in a variety of colors.

Where: I photographed this sea star on a reef at Bunaken Marine Park, Indonesia.

4 comments:

Andrew Cooper said...

Personally I think of Linckia as "Play-Doh stars", particularly the common green Linckia guildingi found on Kohala reefs. The colors and shapes just look like something created by a five year old.

catsynth said...

I don't think I have ever seen an animal with that shade of purple before! It looks like it also only has for legs, though on closer examination I think two are just very close together?

scienceguy288 said...

What a colour! Someone is not afraid of being eaten.

Becky and Gary said...

What a beautiful color! I didn't think stars came in different colors.
B.