| Range: |
Tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans |
| Habitat: |
Coral reefs, adjacent sandy areas |
| Conservation Status: |
Not listed by IUCN |
| Scientific Name: |
Protoreaster nodosus |
Despite the charming name, you don't want to eat this seastar, since its bumpy body probably wouldn't taste good. But the brown spots on this animal's back actually do resemble chocolate chips.
The chocolate chip star makes its home in tropical oceans. It crawls along the ocean floor on its tube-feet, feeding on corals, clams and oysters.
Seastars -- also known as starfish -- are probably the most well known of the echinoderms (meaning spiny skin). Along with their cousins the sea urchins, sea cucumbers and sand dollars, adult echinoderms have a body pattern that repeats itself five times, typically a star-like pattern with five arms. Each of the arms acts independently, with no central control; echinoderms have no brain.
Seastars also have no head or tail. Instead their five or more arms extend from a central hub like the spokes of a wheel. Special cells all over their bodies sense light, touch and odors. These cells are most concentrated on the tube-feet -- on the underside of their arms -- and on feelers at the tip of each arm. Most seastars have an eye spot on each arm tip too.
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