Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Crown of Thorns Starfish

Acanthaster planci

Description:

The crown-of-thorns receives its name from venomous thorn-like spines that cover its. The crown-of-thorns is a corallivore, a carnivorous predator that preys on reef coral polyps. They climb onto reef structures, and then extrude their stomach onto the coral. This releases digestive enzymes that allow the starfish to absorb nutrients from the liquefied coral tissue.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

1 Comment

ceherzog
ceherzog 12 years ago

Wow! It does look kinda like the Crown of thorns plant stems...only blue.

Very cool!

moralcoral
Spotted by
moralcoral

Da Nang, Ðà N?ng, Viet Nam

Spotted on Oct 26, 2011
Submitted on Oct 26, 2011

Spotted for Mission

Related Spottings

Crown of thorns sea star Corona de espinas (Crown-of-thorns starfish) Crown of Thorns Seastar Crown of Thorns Sea Star

Nearby Spottings

Starfruit Tree Four-lined Tree Frog Harlequin Ghost Pipefish Spot-fin Porcupine Fish
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team