Starfish Macro Shots! Up Close Tropical Edition!

This fantastic image by Tyson Jerry from North Sulawesi

By now, a bunch of people have seen the incredible collection of close-up asteroid photos by Alexander Semenov and I reviewed them for the Smithsonian here.

Those pictures were close ups of asteroids from cold-water settings in the North Pacific & North Atlantic. There's a very different fauna of asteroids in those parts of the world compared to the tropics.

Most of the starfish in the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans show a lot of granules, spination and armor and of course are composed of very different families of asteroids compared to those which live in the far North.

If you'd like to see some pics of the mouth armor in these types of starfish go here!

I start with the above : a STUNNING shot of Protoreaster nodosus, a commonly encountered sea star found throughout the Pacific.  Shots below are macro shots showing skeletal features and colors of different tropical, Indo-Pacific starfish species.

More close up on Protoreaster with more pointed spines. Image by Nick Robertson Brown (Frogfish Photos)

What are these weird threads? Feeding tentacles from a benthic ctenophore? Gametes?  Weird. Photo by MerMate (Eunice Khoo)

The strange soft-warty structures are a distinguishing feature on the surface of Echinaster callosus! Function unknown. Images by Optical Allusion

Some fantastic detail on the ophidiasterid Nardoa. Image by Stephane Bailliez

Here's a close up on Gomophia gomophia. Image by Okinawa Nature Photography (Shawn Miller)

An awesome close up of the disk on Fromia nodosa from the Maldives. Image by Philippe Guillaume.

Close up of Fromia indica. Image by Jesse Claggett

The papulae (aka the gills) and spines of Acanthaster planci-the Crown of Thorns starfish. Image by Barry Fackler.

This one shows a close up of the gills of Acanthaster planci. Image by David Garcia Fonseca.

Wow! First record of the brittle star Ophiactis? living on the spines of Pentaceraster. Image by Maractwin

another tight shot of a brittle star (Ophiothela?) living on the asteroid Nardoa. Image by deco4macro

The same kind of star sans ophiuroid. Image by samui13coconut13

Surface spines on Pentaceraster. The tiny white circles on the brown spaces are papulae aka the gills. Image by Friscodive.

]

Surface close up on the cushion star Culcita novaeguineae from the Maldives. Image by Frédérique Jaffeux. All the white pores are papulae aka the gills.

From the Sand star Luidia maculata Image by Kok Sheng

And another L. maculata by [WJ]

Crinoid Close ups!

               

Crinoids, aka Feather stars are probably the least familiar of echinoderms to many people. They've been around for awhile and you can often see their older Paleozoic ancestors with stalks in fossil beds throughout the world.

But most modern crinoids almost resemble plants (albeit stunning ones). The picture above shows a typical "feather star" or comatulid crinoid. The arms have feathery appendages called pinnules which are used for capturing food. 

To give you some reference.. here's a generalized diagram. Food goes into the mouth located on the "inside" of the cup where the arms meet.  

Image from lander.edu

I've often tried to make several echinoderms more "visible" to people by sharing some incredible imagery of them-from perspectives that might be unfamiliar. Some of my posts on ophiuroids here and here for example...

Here is a very busy picture of the many structures surrounding the MOUTH (at center covered by more tentacles) (critter from Fiji) (image by Jaw'sDad-Jeff Williams):

Here's a great picture of the UNDERSIDE of a feather star. See those tentacle-like things wrapped around the whip coral?  Those are called "cirri". Those are the "feet" that adhere the remainder of the animal to its perch.   This image by "sabahsharky"

Blue Crinoid Close up.. from Sulawesi, Indonesia.  These are the feeding arms with yellow tipped extensions called pinnules. Image by Richard Merritt, FRPS.

A stunning image of Oxycomanthus bennetti from Indonesia by il Cosaro.

More close ups!  Neat crinoid close up of the arm. Yellow tips on purple pinnules and arms.

A nice close up of the feeding arms. Three Photos below by Geoff Spiby.

Yellow arms by Friscodive

A stunning shot of a red-white crinoid by Russel Taylor

Another amazing close up by Russel Taylor

Gorgeous in Green!

Two photos of crinoids from the Philippines by Courtney Platt

A neat red/yellow crinoid from the Philippines Image by Jex207

There's a shrimp in this..but mostly I just think the arms are amazing. Photo by MerMate

One showing nice detail of the segmentation present on each individual arm

And a fossil for comparison. Note that the cup is upside down. Photo by zxgirl

And one of these days I will follow up with the commensals that live on crinoids! The mimicry is stunning...