This light brown or blue colored star has 5 thick arms. This star has numerous large white spines with swollen tips, which are uniformly spaced, and surrounded by blue or purple rings. These are surrounded by a brown fuzzy-looking ring of pedicellariae, which prevent fouling organisms from settling on their surface.
Habitat
Lower intertidal and subtidal to depths of 300 feet, usually on rocky bottoms but also found on sandy bottoms or pier pilings.
Diet
Eats mussels, barnacles, snails, and chitons
Life History
Giant spined stars reproduce by broadcast spawning. Larvae start life as plankton where they feed in the water column. They then undergo metamorphosis into the juvenile form and settle onto the bottom.
Each arm can grow over 12 inches long.
IUCN Status
Not Evaluated
Ecosystem & Cultural Importance
This sea star feeds its predators. The larval stages are eaten by snails and nudibranchs while adults are preyed on by gulls and sea otters.
They are capable of regenerating their bodies, even from one arm. Because sea otters will often eat part of a sea star before discarding it, sea otter feeding grounds will often have many sea stars in the process of regrowing limbs.
A study was done with this species where it learned to associate light with food.
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