Is It a Spider? is It an Octopus? No, It’s an Echinoderm!!?

For those of you who are as uninformed as I was an echinoderm is a sea creature.  Amongst it’s many talents it can attach itself to surfaces via tubes on its arms which enables it to protect itself from predators by hanging on for dear life and it also helps it to grasp food.  And most echinoderms have the ability to regenerate lost limbs!

The most commonly known echinoderm is the starfish but the starfish which is the star of the show here is a bit of a rarity – instead of the usual five limbs he has eight!

Because starfish have the ability to regenerate their arms with considerable ease and rapidity, it’s not unheard of for six limbed ones to turn up on the shore every now and again, but eight is phenomenal.

Stan, as he’s been named, was caught off the coast of Cornwall in a local fisherman’s crab pot and was promptly delivered to the Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay for their opinion.

Following a thorough medical examination by a marine biologist from Plymouth, it was thought that Stan (as he’s now been named!)’ probably hadn’t just ‘regrown’ his arms but had in fact been born that way.  A normal starfish has a central disc which is basically the equivalent of the human body - it has it’s ‘brain’, mouth, stomach, water pump … in essence it’s the the main core of it’s essential organs.  But Stan is the equivalent of Siamese twins!  He has two discs fused together in a figure of 8 shape.

Thankfully Stan was given a clean bill of health and at a hefty 10 inches in diameter he’s quite a big boy compared to his other friends at the aquarium, but his size and extra arms are quite an asset to him – he’s able to grab food at a greater rate than other diners who only have five arms and are of limited stature!

Stan is a spiny starfish which family are readily found in British waters, and the name derives from the lines of spines that run along each of his arms.  He feeds on a variety of things; fish, shellfish, molluscs and other starfish and, like his close relatives, he doesn’t care whether they’re alive or dead!.  He would normally live on a rocky seabed at around a depth of 600 ft

Stan’s being well looked after at his new home and is quite a celebrity!  Let’s hope the other occupants in the tank don’t have an attack of the ‘green eyed monsters’ – I can just imagine an aquarium full of starfish having a good old bout of jealousy based fisticuffs!!!  One mass of entangled arms – just like a game of Twister!!