The feather starfish may be pretty just sitting there, but when it starts swimming, that’s when it’s true beauty shines. In fact, it’s downright hypnotic.
Via I Am Bored
What happens when you turn a starfish upside down? This nine-legged starfish couldn’t have been too happy about the experiment, but he had a good recovery plan. -via Bits and Pieces
How do starfish keep cool when lying on the sand during low tide? Dr Sylvain Pincebourde and colleagues at the University of California, Davis and Bodega Marine Laboratory, Bodega Bay, California, studied starfish (okay, sea stars) in an aquarium, replicating tides and environmental conditions.
They discovered that a starfish will ingest cold seawater to lower its body temperature before a hot day on the beach. Sucking up water large amounts of water increases a starfish’s body mass, which means its body temperature increases more slowly. Pretty cool!
Infrared photo above by B. Helmuth and S. Pincebourde shows cool areas in purple and warm areas in red, via BBC News.

(image credit: Flickr user candyonthebeach)
