Hippasteria phrygiana

Hippasteria phrygiana
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Asteroidea
Order: Valvatida
Family: Goniasteridae
Genus: Hippasteria
Species: H. phrygiana
Binomial name
Hippasteria phrygiana
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hippasteria phrygiana.

Hippasteria phrygiana is a sea star species, member of the Goniasteridae family.

Description and characteristics

This species grows up to 20cm in diameter, with short arms and a large body. The upper surface is red and covered with rounded knob-like spines; the lower surface contains many macroscopic bivalved pedicellariae.


Hippasteria phrygiana attacked by Solaster dawsoni


Habitat and geographic range

This species is incredibly widely distributed: it is present in the 3 main oceanic basins.[1]

It lives mostly in cold and deep waters.[1]

Biology

This species feeds mostly on cnidarians, especially deep-sea corals.[2]


References

  1. 1 2 Mah, Christopher L. (2013-02-12). "Starfish Mystery! 3 Oceans,2 Hemispheres,but ONE species?!". The Echinoblog.
  2. Mah, Christopher L. (2013-09-16). "Goniasterid Starfish LOVE to eat Octocorals!". The Echinoblog.

External links


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, September 16, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.