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Project Noah Nature School
Eucnemis sp.
Photo take at -45 ft on a Caribbean reef during a night dive. Basket stars are a group of brittle stars they have nocturnal habits. Basket stars are entirely marine invertebrate animals with a pentaradial symmetry. Their bodies are composed of a central disk with multitudes of arms branching dichotomously forming thousands of branchlets. The central disk can be approximately 14 cm and the arms 4-5 times the length of the disk. Their colours vary between individuals and often on different parts of the body ranging from beige to almost white
Found in shallow and deep waters worldwide. In the wild they may live up to 35 years.When feeding, they extend several of their arms into the water, the branchlets spread out like a fan, oriented so that they are more or less perpendicular to the water current. Macroscopic zooplankton including chaetognaths are caught by an array of microscopic hooks on the arms. Branchlets in the vicinity curl and wrap around captured prey forming a localized knot. Mucus extruded from glands further immobilise the prey. At some point knot-laden arms roll in towards the underside of the disk and the captured prey is transferred to the mouth
Spotted on Apr 13, 2012
Submitted on Apr 13, 2012
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