SUBMON
  • Element del menú
    • About us
      • Mission, vision y values
      • Our team
      • Transparency
    • Activity
      • Conservation and marine biodiversity
      • Environmental education and training workshops
      • Restoration, improvement and mitigation of impact on species of marine ecosystems projects
      • Sustainable activities for marine environment
    • Collaborate
      • Participate in our projects
      • Companies
    • Shop
    • News
    • Contact
    • Element del menú
  • en
    • ca
    • es
    • en
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • ca
  • es
  • en
SUBMON
  • About us
    • Mission, vision y values
    • Our team
    • Transparency
  • Activity
    • Conservation and marine biodiversity
    • Environmental education and training workshops
    • Restoration, improvement and mitigation of impact on species of marine ecosystems projects
    • Sustainable activities for marine environment
  • Collaborate
    • Participate in our projects
    • Companies
  • Shop
  • News
  • Contact
  • Element del menú
Conservation, Environmental education and awareness

What is your superpower?

April 29, 2021
By Tecla Maggioni
0 Comment
841 Views
Article by Tecla Maggioni

Sea stars are invertebrate animals and belong to the phylum Echinodermata, from the Greek for “hedgehog skin”, which includes sand dollars, sea urchins and sea cucumbers. Sea stars belong to the family Asteroidea and all have a common characteristic: radial symmetry, i.e. their arms or tentacles radiate from a central point, as in a bicycle wheel. In general, the body is divided into five parts, although there are stars that have more arms.

Captions for picture 1: Luidia ciliaris, a species of sea star that can be found in the Mediterranean Sea, speed champion in the starfish world, with seven arms and an orange color. Credits: Bernard Picton, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sea stars are marine animals with many peculiarities, which could be considered as superpowers!  

They have super powerful feet and can climb walls like Spider-Man!

They move and walk on the seabed, thanks to their ambulacral apparatus, a water vascular system of canals and appendages that runs all over the animal’s body. This apparatus is filled with a liquid very similar in composition to seawater that hydraulically drives fleshy protrusions called ambulacral feet or “tube feet”. The inflow and outflow of water from this water vascular system is regulated by the madreporite, a plate that is placed on one side between two arms and functions as a trap door or sieve through which the water is filtered. The feet not only have a locomotor function, but also a feeding and sensorial function, and they help the animal to firmly attach to the substrate thanks to their suction cups. These secrete an adhesive substance that allows them to move along rocky walls and even the glass walls of an aquarium.  

They can regenerate their body like Deadpool! 

One peculiarity you may not know about sea star is that most of them can regenerate themselves. Yes, you got it right: they can rebuild their lost or injured arms! After the loss of the arm, the missing part regenerates, and it is quite common to find evidence of one, two or more arm regeneration events in almost all individuals in natural populations. 

Basically, regeneration is the ability of an animal’s cells to make new body parts during adulthood, just as they did during embryonic development. Although the process is very complex and not yet 100% understood, it is certain that sea stars use their stem cells to regenerate. Generally, stem cells can differentiate into any type of cell important for the organism, such as blood cells, muscle cells, skin cells, etc. But when stem cells finally differentiate into other cells, they cannot de-differentiate and go back to their initial undifferentiated status. But it seems that sea star cells have this superpower! After receiving a signal, these cells can re-differentiate into all the parts needed to build a completely new limb. And more: one of the best-known examples of regeneration in star seas is the formation of a whole animal from a single arm, termed “comet”.

Because of their fascinating regenerative capabilities, it is not surprising that sea stars have been used as inspirational biological models for innovative regenerative medicine applications.

They can expel their stomach!

Another peculiarity of some sea stars is the ability to pull their stomach out of their body to catch, wrap and digest preys and once finished, finally pull it back inside. This is very useful when eating mussels or other mollusks: thanks to its suction cups, the sea star manages to separate the two parts of the mussel shell. Once it has succeeded in slightly opening the shell, it pushes the stomach out of its body and into the mussel, secreting enzymes that will quickly destroy the prey’s organs, so that…the feast is ready!

Watch this video if you do not believe it:

What about you – what is your superpower?

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • Whatsapp

Previous Story
When orcas are two-legged…
Next Story
New campaign within the LIBERA project to remove large-scale waste

Related Articles

From Sea to Fork: European Sea2See project for seafood traceability

The Sea2See project has recently started with the aim of...

Espacio custodia Submon Natura 2000

EU Ocean Mission 2030: a tool to assess Marine Protected Areas effectiveness in six steps

SUBMON, together with another three European partners, has recently completed...

Leave your comment Cancel Reply

(will not be shared)

Join our newsletter

Categories

  • Conservation
  • Environmental education and awareness
  • Mitigation of environmental impact
  • Sustainable development
  • Uncategorized

Popular posts

  • Climate change, California sea lions and neurosurgeons
  • On your observations of sharks and rays
  • Well-managed fisheries and human health
  • EU Ocean Mission 2030: a tool to assess Marine Protected Areas effectiveness in six steps
  • Utopian and dystopian marine futures
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Legal notice

© SUBMON
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

SUBMON complies fully with the current legislation for the protection of personal data, and the requirement for confidentiality for content management services.

SUBMON has adopted the necessary technical measures to ensure the required level of security, according to the nature and circumstances of the personal data being processed, in order to avoid its alteration, loss, unauthorised access or processing, as far as possible and according to the techniques employed.

Where personal data is required when filling in a form, the client or user will be informed of the recipient and purpose of the information, the identity and address of the individual or company responsible for the file and the right of the user to access, rectify, cancel or object to the processing of their data. Personal data will only be processed and/or released for the purpose expressed, and then only with the permission of the user or client.

In order to always keep our database up to date and to ensure that it does not contain errors, we request that our clients and users inform us as soon as possible of any modification or rectification to their personal data which may be necessary.

Some of the pages of the SUBMON site contain cookies, which are small data files generated in the computer of the user or client which enable the system to remember the language and site, as well as other characteristics and navigation preferences chosen by the user during their first visit. These cookies are not invasive, nor do they carry virus or personal data, and their only function is to personalise navigation according to the choices made previously by the user. If you wish, you can deactivate and/or eliminate cookies by following the instructions which appear in our Security Recommendations .
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT
SearchPostsLoginCart
Wednesday, 30, Nov
From Sea to Fork: European Sea2See project for seafood traceability
Wednesday, 23, Nov
EU Ocean Mission 2030: a tool to assess Marine Protected Areas effectiveness in six steps
Monday, 14, Nov
CETAMED NORTE: visual and acoustic censuses to study cetacean and sea turtle populations in the northern sector of the Mediterranean Cetacean Migration Corridor
Thursday, 27, Oct
Final touch to the project RESPONDER with the Advanced Oiled Wildlife Rescue Center course in Catalonia
Friday, 7, Oct
First advanced courses and practice drills in Catalonia on search and rescue of oiled marine wildlife of the RESPONDER project
Monday, 19, Sep
SUBMON examines the conservation status of Neptune seagrass in Roses and Montgó (Torroella de Montgrí).

Welcome back,