It turns out that Mother Nature invented the Super Mario Star. Behold the Marginaster sea star, newly discovered off the coast of Tasmania:
Photo: CSIRO
A recently discovered species of Marginaster sea star was found living around seamounts in the southern waters off the coast of Tasmania, scientists reported in October 2008.
The seamounts, or underwater mountains, can sprawl 15.6 miles (25 kilometers) wide and rise thousands of feet from the seabed.
In the deep sea, where the ocean bottom is nothing more than muddy sediment, rocky seamounts offer a stable habitat that provides shelter and food for sea life.
National Geographic News has the fascinating photo gallery: Link
My wife and I visited the Monterey Aquarium a few years ago and had fun watching the docents spend LOTS of time patronizingly correct ever little kid who said "Look at the starfish!" or "What pretty jellyfish!". (Jellyfish are *sea jellies* now).
I asked the docent why she was repeatedly being such a douche (OK, I was nicer than that) to all the little kids, and she exclaimed "well, they aren't really fish, you know!" at which point I retorted that they weren't really stars either. I also alerted her that seahorses weren't really horses either, so she better come up with a new name for those as well.
The funny thing was she didn't seem to be able to answer too many technical questions about the animals themselves... Her job training seemed to have been concentrated at correcting anyone who didn't use the new P.C. terminology. She wasn't the only docent there doing this, either; I heard others, but didn't bother harassing them as it started to get more busy.