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Project Noah Nature School
Linckia laevigata
These sea stars may grow up to 30 cm in diameter, with rounded tips at each of the arms; some individuals may bear lighter or darker spots along each of their arms. Individual specimens are typically firm in texture, possessing the slightly tubular, elongated arms.
A coral lagoon at the south end of the Coral Sea.
This, and one other individual I spotted, had only four arms. It doesn't seem to be that one arm was lost to injury, but rather naturally occurring a mutation.
Spotted on Sep 25, 2013
Submitted on Sep 27, 2013
4 Comments
Thanks, Tai. I looked closely to see if there wasn't evidence of a "dropped" arm. Another linckia drops arms, which grows into new individuals, and there is speculation that Blue linckias may do the same. Info here: http://www.mousetrapmultimedia.com/virtu...
Amazing!
I've add the other one Mark. So it happened at least twice. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/402...
A beautiful freak. It sure looks even. I wonder how often it happens naturally.