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Carpet Seastar

Meridiastra calcar

Photo by Leuba Ridgway
Published on Project Noah
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-38.2138, 145.041

Field Notes

Description:

Brightly coloured seastars, one orange and the other blue about 70 mm wide. These had eight short arms with large aboral discs.
Clearly visible on the aboral/upper surface of blue seastar is the madreporite (pic 4) which is a pale calcareous perforated disc that controls the amount of water that gets in or out of the seastar's vascular system- like a pressure equaliser.

Habitat:

Spotted at low tide in rock pools in the tidal zone -Port Phillip Bay.

Notes:

These were amongst the rocks with a myriad other marine creatures. Also called cushion seastar.

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (1)

Photographed
PublishedNovember 22, 2023

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