Could these be the exact same species?

[Krish]

Went out to my wife's cousin's beach house today and the kids picked up these two starfish. Yes, normal people can swim in the Bahamas at the peek of winter just not Krish!

Anyways, they both seem to have an odd number of legs for a starfish, but yet they look exactly a like in color, texture and everything... Just a different number of legs. Does this happen? I know some can be broken off and I guess would probably grow back, but this doesn't look like the case here.

 

[estanoche]

ohhhh neat ... tagging along ...............

 

[Burke]

maybe it split to reproduce????

I have seen that with the small hitchhiker stars.

 

[Krish]

maybe it split to reproduce????

I have seen that with the small hitchhiker stars.

That is a posibility. At first I thought one got injured somehow and lost some legs, but they both look symmetrical...

 

[kevnkev]

Starfish are remarkable regenerators. When harassed some species can choose to drop arms instead of being eaten whole. Then they wander off and regrow the lost arm. But sometimes things don't quite go right. A lost arm might regrow as two arms instead of healing back into just one arm (likely what happened to your 6-armed individual). Or perhaps a lost arm just heals over instead of regrowing (likely what happened to your 4-armed individual).

I'm not a tropical star expert (temperate inverts are my specialty), but those two look similar enough to be the same species. Because of their ability to regenerate but with occasional errors, arm number is not generally a good characteristic to identify stars by.

Here's a nifty picture I took of a Washington State star that must have gotten its arm damaged and then had a unique heal. (This is Pisaster brevispinus).

 

[seattlereef]

As I sit looking out on the snow... that sand looks nice and warm.

 

[Krish]

Starfish are remarkable regenerators. When harassed some species can choose to drop arms instead of being eaten whole. Then they wander off and regrow the lost arm. But sometimes things don't quite go right. A lost arm might regrow as two arms instead of healing back into just one arm (likely what happened to your 6-armed individual). Or perhaps a lost arm just heals over instead of regrowing (likely what happened to your 4-armed individual).

I'm not a tropical star expert (temperate inverts are my specialty), but those two look similar enough to be the same species. Because of their ability to regenerate but with occasional errors, arm number is not generally a good characteristic to identify stars by.

Here's a nifty picture I took of a Washington State star that must have gotten its arm damaged and then had a unique heal. (This is Pisaster brevispinus). View attachment 42840

That's pretty cool!

As I sit looking out on the snow... that sand looks nice and warm.

Snow?? What's that??

 

[Scooterman]

Sometimes I wish I had an extra arm to help me while doing projects!