Comments on: The Dreaded Sticky Thong and Other Curiosities

By: Steve Goodheart

Steve Goodheart — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:52:49 +0000

That would be an interesting picture.

Hmmm, a science editor, yes, but Mr. Wizard, no! I was just wondering if you might have seen one under attack in your dives.

A quick look look around the intertubes and my into my endless treasury of accumulated science facts tells us that sharks, rays, and some large boney fish will take a bite if they can…also, that bad-ass triton snail totally whups ass and noms on the crown-of-thorns starfish (interestingly, the overfishing of the beautiful triton is at least partially responsible for the crown-of-thorns plague on the Great Barrier Reef.)

By: MadDog

MadDog — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:58:58 +0000

I have an image somewhere of a single leg of a small starfish growing four other legs out of the base. I’ll try to find it. I don’t know what bites off starfish legs. You’re the science editor; you tell me.

By: Steve Goodheart

Steve Goodheart — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:24:04 +0000

I think I might have nabbed one of those 5-plus stars from your site before we met…..I’ll have fun with the search and find some more…

Makes sense about the vulnerability of long, relatively skinny legs….you have any idea who’s snapping off starfish arms?

At the beach in Laguna, I’d seen stars growing back “limbs,” but growing a whole critter from a leg is remarkable — wouldn’t it be great if we could regenerate limbs salamander-style? I know scientists are working on that….

By: MadDog

MadDog — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:13:27 +0000

I’ve seen quite a few starfish around here that ‘normally’ have five arms but have six or even seven. I have a couple of images of them in my journal. (the search feature works pretty well for finding things)

I think that they would lose mobility and certainly stability, but they would be much less likely to have something bitten off. We see starfish with legs missing on every dive. I’ve even seen new starfish growing from a bitten-off leg!

By: Steve Goodheart

Steve Goodheart — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:17:54 +0000

PS – That sea cucumber goo is simply amazing….I wonder if we can learn anything helpful in terms of adhesives or glues from them? (All humanity’s first glues were bioadhesives, of course.) And as a science buff, I’d love to know why it’s so damn sticky….what’s going on at the molecular level….is it a physical or mechanical stickiness, physical penetration, micro-hooks and grabbers, or is there something going on at the chemical level with some sort of covalent bonding? (Jan, not asking you for answers! Just mumbling out loud.)

Anyway, I think I’m going to look into sea cucumbers today…always wanted to know more about them.

By: Steve Goodheart

Steve Goodheart — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:06:20 +0000

I really like this Cushion Star (or Pincushion Star) and your description of what they feel like when you poke them….I know there is huge variety of shapes and looks with starfish, but I also undersand they usually have 5 arms, and if you look at the shape of this animal, you can still see the “five” bumps around it’s circumference.

To me, that’s totally interesting….I wonder what advantage this particular kind of starfish found in this kind of stubby, almost non-existant “arm” structure?Did ancient proto-stars start out like Mr. Cushion, with almost no arms, and then find Darwinian advantage in growing longer arms…or is this particular beastie’s shape the result of finding adaptive advantage in going from a more typical long-armed star to this shape? I can never look at any creature without thinking….what evolutionary forces led to what we see before us now? Of course, I just love what I see for what it is, but sometimes, science can add intrigue and mystery to what’s self-evidently there.