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 › Abécédaire › Red starfish
Mediterranean species :

Red starfish

The most common starfish in the Mediterranean
Did you know ?
While starfish usually have 5 arms, some of them have 6 or even 7. They are able to regrow a lost or damaged limb!

This species is a bright red or brick red colour with small pits on its arms. Its round arms have small feet – called tube feet – with suckers on the end. It uses them to move around and collect and feed on organic particles from the sea bottom. The red starfish has a diameter of about 20 centimetres. It lives on rocky bottoms and in Posidonia seagrass beds down to depths of 300m. They are found all over the Mediterranean except in the Black Sea, and from Great Britain to Cabo Verde in the Atlantic.

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Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Asteroidea
Order: Spinulosida
Family: Echinasteridae
Scientic name: Echinaster sepositus

French: Etoile de mer rouge
Spanish: Estrella espinosa roja
Italian: Stella rossa
German: Purpurstern

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Institut océanographique Paul Ricard
Île des Embiez - 83140 Six-Fours-les-Plages
Tél. +33 (0)4 94 34 02 49
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