How do sea stars eat?
Posted: November 18, 2008 Filed under: Echinoderms | Tags: bivalves, Clams, Echinoderm, sea star, Starfish 3 Comments »Sea stars grip their prey (bivalves, such as clams and oysters) with their suction feet and pry them apart to eat the muscle inside the shells. Once the bivalve shell is opened the stomach of the sea star comes out of its star-shaped body to absorb the meat inside and pull the entree inside itself. After this happened the animal is full and not going anywhere soon (maybe just like you after Thanksgiving dinner).
A seastar is another common name for starfish. Scientists are on a campaign to get people to refer to this echinoderm as the seastar. Since, well, they just are not fish. Similarly, jellies are not called jellyfish anymore.
Check out this video from the Monterey Bay Aquarium of a sea star chowing down!
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[...] by contracting and stretching. Tubed feet also come in handy when grasping food to place into the mouth of the sea star. For more information and a great image of the madreporite of a sea star click [...]