Daisy Brittle Star
By
Wanted For: Daisy Brittle Stars capture their prey from the tide pool floor. Their prey includes polychaete worms, microscopic organisms, and small pieces of decaying matter. They capture their food with their tube feet.
Sources:
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Ophiopholis_aculeata.html http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/kodiak/photo/misophiur.htm Last Known Whereabouts: Daisy Brittle Stars live in tide pools ranging from the Arctic South, to Cape Cod, and from Point Barrow, Alaska to Santa Barbara, California. They live in lower intertidal zones that are up to 5,000 feet deep. They usually are under or within rocks, or burrowed in the sand and mud.
Sources:
http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/kodiak/photo/misophiur.htm http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Ophiopholis_aculeata.html http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/detail.asp?recnum=SC0078
Considered Armed and Dangerous: If attacked, it loses the arm being handled. This distracts and slows down their predator, which is mainly fish, allowing the brittle star to make a quick escape. Their arms grow back as fast as 2.3 millimeters per month.
Sources:
http://www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Natural_History/Invertebrates.aspx?id=2374 http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Brittle_star http://www.reef.edu.au/asp_pages/secb.asp?FormNo=45
Description: The Daisy Brittle Star has a radially symmetrical star-shaped body and an endoskeleton made of calcium. Full grown, its disc is about nineteen millimeters in diameter, and the arms are about 92 millimeters long. It has five spiny, flexible arms that are attached to a central, circular disc in the center of its body. The central disc contains the mouth, jaws, and stomach. They do not have eyes, an anus, a brain, a head, or a heart. Its waste is carried out by the bursa (sac-like body cavities) that are at the base of each arm. There is a wide range of colors for this animal, including red, orange, pink, yellow, white, blue, green, tan, brown, gray, and black. However, it is not limited to one color; it can be spotted or striped.
Sources:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/80431/brittle-star http://bcbiodiversity.homestead.com/echinoderms.html http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/detail.asp?recnum=SC0078 http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Brittle_star http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Ophiopholis_aculeata.html
Last Seen Traveling: Unlike Sea Stars that use their tube feet to move, Daisy Brittle Stars use their arms to travel from place to place. By wiggling their arms, they can move very fast in a snake-like manner.
Sources:
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Brittle_star http://www.wetwebmedia.com/brittlestars.htm “Aka”: This animal’s most common name is “Daisy Brittle Star,” but it is sometimes known as a “Snake Star.” Its scientific name is “Ophiopholis Ophiopholis Aculeata.”
Sources:
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Ophiopholis_aculeata.html http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/echinodermata/ophiuroidea.html Known Associates: Daisy Brittle Stars’ closest relatives are other species of Brittle Stars, such as the Spiny Brittle Star, the Green Brittle Star, and the Sponge Brittle Star. However, they are also closely related to Sea Stars and Cushion Stars. The sexes of Daisy Brittle Stars are separate, though they look the same. The gonads are located on the bursa, and they let their sex cells out into the water for fertilization. Daisy Brittle Stars can also reproduce asexually; if a part of the brittle star breaks off and has a piece of the central disc attached, it can grow into a new Daisy Brittle Star. The original brittle star will regenerate a replacement arm.
Sources:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/brittlestars.htm http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Ophiopholis_aculeata.html http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Brittle_star#Reproduction_and_life_span
Human Impact: Daisy Brittle Stars have had a positive impact on humans. In the eighteenth century, Indonesians would eat brittle stars, but they are not used as a food source today. Now, they are more of a decoration because people like to see them in their habitats. They are not used as souvenirs because of how fragile they are. Humans have not had a negative effect on Daisy Brittle Stars. However, if shore pollution gets any worse, humans will have negatively effected them. If pollution is not brought under control, their population will deplete because pollution is very harmful to their habitats.
Sources:
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Ophiopholis_aculeata.html http://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/bitstream/10161/815/1/David_Jacob_MP.pdf General Picture:
Source:
http://www.bcarchives.bc.ca/Content_Files/Images/Collections%20and%20Research/Natural%20History/Marine%20Inverts/O.aculeataRag183_Web.jpg
Central disc
Bursa
Labeled Photo of External Anatomy
Source:
http://rydberg.biology.colostate.edu/Dissections/Brittle%20Star/Brittlestar%20ventral%20ext.jpg
Life Cycle:
Above, the Sexual Reproductive Life Cycle and the Asexually Reproductive Life Cycle of the Daisy Brittle Star are shown.
Sources:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/brittlestars.htm http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Ophiopholis_aculeata.html http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Brittle_star#Reproduction_and_life_span
My Invertebrate Is:
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Echinodermata
Class Ophiuroidea
Order Ophiurida
Family Ophiactidae
Genus Ophiopholis
Species Ophiopholis Aculeata