Sea Stars

There are about 5,000 different species of Asteroidea or sea stars.

Sea stars usually have five arms, but some sea stars have forty arms.  Some sea stars lose their arms, but then a new arm grows back.  

A sea star has an eye spot at the end of each one if its arms.  They can only see light and dark.  

Sea stars move by using their suckers or "tube feet" on the bottom of them to move along the sea floor.    

Sea stars eat any small, slow-moving creature.  One place you can find sea stars is in shallow waters in oyster beds.  Sea stars stick their stomachs out of their body and eat their food. 

I want to catch them all!!!

This is a brittle star.  Brittle stars don't have a butt.  They poop out of their mouths.

This video shows you how a brittle star moves fast in the water.  

On this sea star there is an orange spot in the middle of its body.  That dot is called a sieve plate.  The sieve plate helps the sea star drink water.  There are little holes, that you can't see, in that dot.  The water goes through those holes into its arms.