Sunflower sea star

Pycnopodia helianthoides · The sunflower sea star is a huge, many-armed predator living on the seafloor of the northeastern Pacific Ocean.

Also called Sunflower starfish, Sunflower star, Sunflower seastar.

Sunflower sea star
Photo: MOs810, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sunflower sea star
Photo: Jerry Kirkhart from Los Osos, Calif., CC BY 2.0
Sunflower sea star
Photo: Brocken Inaglory, CC BY-SA 4.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumEchinodermata
ClassAsteroidea
OrderForcipulatida
FamilyAsteriidae
GenusPycnopodia
SpeciesPycnopodia helianthoides

Where it lives

Seabeds and kelp forests of the northeast Pacific, from Alaska to Baja California.

Fun facts

  • It's the heaviest known sea star, tipping the scales at about 5 kilograms.
  • If a predator grabs it, it can shed an arm to escape—and grow a new one back within just a few weeks.
  • Its stomach can push out through its mouth to digest big prey like abalone from the outside.
  • To spawn, it arches up on about a dozen of its arms to release eggs or sperm straight into the water.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).