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Will the real Pisaster brevispinus please stand up? |
Looking again at the photo I published at the top of last week's post, purporting to be of an adult giant pink starfish (Pisaster brevispinus), I've come to the conclusion that it's actually just an unusually large leather star (Dermasterias imbricata). Among other things, it doesn't seem to have any brevispini (short spines).
Sigh.
Oh, well. I hold out hope that this favourite of mine, which was always more numerous in deep water than intertidally, is still down there, outbreeding the plague.
(Photo courtesy of D. Gordon E. Robertson and Wikimedia Commons.)
Some day we'll find it,
ReplyDeletethe starfish correction...
...the lovers, the dreamers, and me.
ReplyDeleteInteresting finds. (I read your previous post, too.) :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, thank you for the info on the mounds in WA. Oh wow! I just looked it up, Robin. That’s quite a large area. I’m glad the Mima mounds are protected.
I’d love to go check it out, sometime. I see it’s not very far from I-5 (and Olympia).
Thanks a ton! 🙂
The Mima reserve is indeed a very nice day hike. Sadly, the great majority of the mound prairie that existed here at contact has been largely obliterated, but at least we have that. Thanks for your comment!
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