LeslieH
Well-known member
clubbed brittle star
Today's pics were taken by Ollie Mengedoht (Beastiependent on the boards), an ardent crab-lover and photographer extraordinaire.
Brittle stars & serpent stars all belong to class Ophiuroidea in the phylum Echinodermata. The phylum name means "spiny-skin" while the class name is a combination of the words snake & like - so they are the snake-like spiny-skin animals. The difference between brittles & serpents is simply that brittles have large conspicuous arm spines and the serpents don't.
Ollie's pictures of his Ophiomastix annulosa quickly made it one of my favorite species.
This first close up shows why I call it the clubbed brittle star. See the enlarged arm spines that look like clubs?
Now for a little bit of feeding behavior....
Close up and personal....
Ollie didn't know if the star had captured a live hermit or just the molt but he never did see the hermit again.
For more of Ollie's great pics & reliable crab ids go to his crab site at PANZERWELTEN
Today's pics were taken by Ollie Mengedoht (Beastiependent on the boards), an ardent crab-lover and photographer extraordinaire.
Brittle stars & serpent stars all belong to class Ophiuroidea in the phylum Echinodermata. The phylum name means "spiny-skin" while the class name is a combination of the words snake & like - so they are the snake-like spiny-skin animals. The difference between brittles & serpents is simply that brittles have large conspicuous arm spines and the serpents don't.
Ollie's pictures of his Ophiomastix annulosa quickly made it one of my favorite species.
This first close up shows why I call it the clubbed brittle star. See the enlarged arm spines that look like clubs?
Now for a little bit of feeding behavior....
Close up and personal....
Ollie didn't know if the star had captured a live hermit or just the molt but he never did see the hermit again.
For more of Ollie's great pics & reliable crab ids go to his crab site at PANZERWELTEN
