The Basket Star: Nature's Living Tapestry In The Ocean

The Basket Star scientifically known as Euryalida is a family of brittle stars with branching arms called basket arms or long arms called snake stars.

Table of Contents

History Of The Basket Star:

These creatures are living fossils dating back to Carboniferous(spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period 358.9 Ma (million years ago), to the beginning of the Permian Period, 298.9 Ma).

Habitat:

They are found from coral reefs(60 meters) to deep-sea zones all over the world with depth range starting from 10 to 1900 meters deep.

Appearance:

They have repeatedly branched arms, while other species have long arms. They can weigh up to 5 kilograms,70 cm in arm length with a disk diameter of 60 cm. They have 5 arms. The mouth and internal organs are located at the disk.

Diet:

They eat small benthic crustaceans and zooplankton, anything dropping to their wide mouth(all organic materials too). It’s a passive eater.

Behavior And Lifespan:

All the power and majesty lies in the basket star arms. When threatened, they can close their arms around themselves leaving no access to the body forming a tight ball. They unfurl their arms to reach for prey like small shrimps. Basket stars use their arms to wrap the prey using a tube-like foot to deliver the meal to the mouth in slow motion. They release an excessive amount of food from their mouth after digestion is done. They lack blood. They achieve gas exchange through their systems. They can live to up to 35 years.

Reproduction Of The Basket Star:

They reproduce by simultaneously releasing eggs and sperm into the water, which develop into free-swimming larvae after fertilization.

Unique Adaptations for Survival:

They’ve developed flexible bodies with no bones or blood to endure such high pressure, they have fluid movement of the body and arms with great reflexes and a powerful nervous system allowing them to fully eat and survive in cold remote environments.

Conservation Efforts Of The Basket Star:

They are not really critically endangered as they are all over the world but they are still in great danger due to habitat pollution, seabed mining, and climate change. They have really important role in the sea ecology as they filter and clean the extra materials from the habitat.