Sea stars are perhaps more commonly known as starfish, however, there's been a push to change this common name. One reason is that sea stars aren't fish, and while it's unlikely many people would confuse the two, it's still worth trying to be more accurate. The other reason is because sea stars are echinoderms and calling them sea stars would help follow the trend of commons names for echinoderms like sea urchin, sea cucumber, etc. Technically, either name is correct because common names aren't scientific at the end of the day. These invertebrates get their common names from their similar appearance to the five pointed star shape, though not all sea stars have five arms. Some have up to 40!

Scientific Name: Class Asteroidea
Range: oceans around the world
Size: less than an inch (2.54cm) to nearly three feet (0.91m) in length
Diet: zooplankton, clams, crustaceans, coral, etc.
Lifespan: up to 35 years depending on the species

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**This video is a remastered version of an older video. It has been remade in order to correct inaccuracies from our previous video**



Image and Video Credits:
ParksVicEducation    • Eleven Armed Seastar  Western Port  
Byron Crossley    • Sea star  


Mack Lundy https://flickr.com/photos/mack46/1441...
Jonathan D https://flickr.com/photos/92520900@N0...
James St. John https://flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/...
TANAKA Juuyoh https://flickr.com/photos/tanaka_juuy...
chloe delong https://flickr.com/photos/runningfrom...
jon hanson https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonhans...
Oregon State University https://www.flickr.com/photos/oregons...


Brocken Inaglory https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...


Rate My Funeral https://vimeo.com/46583520
Keeks https://vimeo.com/98786587
seawildearth https://vimeo.com/56888989 ; https://vimeo.com/56314164
Michael Sheldrake https://vimeo.com/108639964
Lars Schmidt https://vimeo.com/381009646
Learning by action; Stichting Natuurbeelden https://www.openbeelden.nl/media/812964


Research Credits:
https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/...
http://tolweb.org/Asteroidea
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/art...
https://books.google.com/books?id=uXx...
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/an...
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/an...
https://www.britannica.com/animal/sea...
https://www.intres.com/abstracts/mep...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/18/sc...
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innova...
https://ssec.si.edu/stemvisionsblog/...
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/s...
http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2014/0...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/...