On sea stars and bat stars

Oh my stars, who knew yesterday's post would raise so many interesting marine life questions!

As near as I can tell, a bat star or sea bat (above), is a type of sea star or starfish. Now, doesn't that sound Dr. Seuss-ish? Anyway, they are both in the echinoderm family, meaning they both have spiny skin.

The bat star is webbed between its arms and it doesn't have pincers for cleaning at the end of its arms. It has little hairs instead. It grows up to about eight inches. Bat stars hang out in the Pacific Ocean from Alaska down to California. When two bat stars meet, they stop and have a little friendly arm wrestle.

Sea stars do have pincers at the ends of their arms. Sea stars can be anywhere from 1/2 inch to 3 feet in size. There are over 1800 speciies and they are found in all of Earth's oceans.

Did you know that sea stars are harvested with a mop-like device? The sea stars readily attach themselves to the mop thing, after which they're plucked off, then ground up and sold as fertilizer and poultry feed. Moral of the story: be careful what or who you glom onto.

The sea stars' biggest talent is its ability to regenerate from even a little bit of an arm.

Take this post with a huge grain of sea salt; I am no marine biologist, just an internet surfer.

And, now, for your viewing pleasure...

Here's a snake star. My favorite.


Here's a serpent star.


Here's a basket star.


(from: www.edu/restoration/html, www.indyzoo.com, www.montereybayaquarium.com)