starfish

10 Stories

Starfish 'Arms' Are Really Something Else Entirely

Scientists say the 5 appendages are 'more like extensions of the head'

(Newser) - If you ever end up on Jeopardy! and your clue is "This star-shaped marine creature has five arms," you may want to pause before you offer what seems like the obvious answer. That's because those appendages you see sticking out from the bodies of starfish aren't...

Warmer Ocean Spells Doom for Starfish
Scientists Find Culprit
in Starfish Devastation
new study
Feb 1, 2019 10:05 AM CST

Scientists Find Culprit in Starfish Devastation

Warmer ocean helps deadly pathogen flourish, study suggests

(Newser) - "This thing was as common as a robin," Cornell's Drew Harvell tells the Atlantic of the sunflower sea star. No more. The creature that once thrived off the West Coast was decimated along with other starfish species by a disease that surfaced with a vengeance around 2013....

They Were Dying by the Millions. Now, a Creature Comeback

Starfish are popping up again on the West Coast

(Newser) - Starfish are making a comeback on the West Coast, four years after a mysterious syndrome killed millions of them. From 2013 to 2014, Sea Star Wasting Syndrome hit sea stars from British Columbia to Mexico. The starfish would develop lesions, then disintegrate, their arms turning into blobs of goo. The...

Big Sign of Hope: Starfish Babies

Big crop of youngsters seems resistant to melting disease

(Newser) - Emerging from a recent dive 40 feet below the surface of Puget Sound, biologist Ben Miner wasn't surprised by what he found: The troubling disease that wiped out millions of starfish up and down the West Coast had not spared this site along the rocky cliffs of Lopez Island....

Scientists Solve the Mystery of 'Melting' Starfish

A virus is likely responsible, they say

(Newser) - Scientists think they finally know what causes sea star wasting syndrome, the disease that's killing off starfish in massive numbers. In a new study , researchers from a number of universities have linked the devastating disease—which causes starfish to rip off their own arms and dissolve into piles of...

Sea Star 'Goo' Problem Getting Worse

Oregon had seemed to be unscathed by the disease. No more

(Newser) - A mysterious disease that has been claiming the lives of sea stars up and down the US, Canadian, and Mexican coasts since last summer has now wiped out as much as 60% of the populations of purple ochre sea stars being watched in Oregon—populations that as of April had...

Starfish Ripping Off Own Arms
 Starfish Ripping Off Own Arms 
Feb 3, 2014 1:50 PM CST

Starfish Ripping Off Own Arms

Reports of 'sea star wasting syndrome' get more disturbing

(Newser) - Scientists are still trying to figure out why starfish are dying in massive numbers, turning into what one taxonomist described as "goo piles." The latest news on the die-off is similarly disturbing: One biology professor studied sea stars suffering from what is being called "sea star wasting...

Starfish Turning Into 'Goo Piles'

 Starfish 
 Turning Into 
 'Goo Piles' 
in case you missed it
Nov 2, 2013 12:16 PM CDT

Starfish Turning Into 'Goo Piles'

Researchers not sure what's causing 'sea star wasting syndrome'

(Newser) - A mystery in the waters along the East Coast—and the West: Starfish are deteriorating, shedding limbs and ending up as "goo piles," which is the actual term used by a taxonomist with the Vancouver Aquarium. "That's as technical as it gets right now," she...

New England Starfish Boom Baffles Experts

Shellfish predators' population worries fishermen

(Newser) - New England beaches are swarming with starfish this spring, and nobody’s sure why, the Boston Globe reports. The spike may be connected to shellfish population; it could be due to a drop in spider crabs, which prey on starfish; it could be tied to water temperature or wind patterns....

Ocean Census Surprises Scientists
Ocean Census Surprises Scientists
Nov 10, 2008 10:32 AM CST

Ocean Census Surprises Scientists

Effort to chart all undersea life by 2010 finds 5K new species

(Newser) - Somewhere under the Antarctic Ocean, brittle starfish completely cover a submerged mountain. In the Pacific, sharks congregate in a region with few food sources but plenty of opportunity for romance. Those facts, along with an accounting of more than 5,000 newly discovered species, are part of the results of...

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