Treasure of the month June: The comet starfish

3 June 2019

Photo: Andreas Schmidt-Rhaesa

The Invertebrates I collection houses not only worms, jellyfish and sponges, but also echinoderms like these starfish.

In the scientific collection of LIB, in the Invertebrates 1 section, some strange looking specimens of starfish are preserved. They are our treasure of the month of June.

These particular specimens were collected in the Seychelles at the beginning of the 20th century. They are starfish in which one of the usually five arms is significantly larger than the others. There is also a single arm. Some of these animals look like comets, which is why the starfish, which belongs to the scientific genus Linckia, has the name comet starfish.

How do these strange shapes come about? Starfish have a high potential for regeneration, so even from severed individual arms a complete new starfish can grow. The individual pieces from LIB's collection show different stages of this growth. This regenerative ability is common among starfish, but the comet starfish are particularly avid regenerators.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Andreas Schmidt-Rhaesa
LIB
Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3
20146 Hamburg
Tel.: +49 40 42 838-3921
E-Mail: Andreas.Schmidt-Rhaesa"AT"uni-hamburg.de