Starfish

About Starfish Starfish by is a higher education technology product aimed at helping students finish what they start. At Penn State, Starfish integrates with LionPATH and is the main system for advising notes, progress reports, and academic reviews. Starfish helps us identify students in need of support in real time, based on their academic performance and concerns raised by faculty and staff. Starfish connects students to the resources designed to help, simplifies communication between faculty and staff members of students’ Success Networks, eases the burden on students who need to contact support services, and optimizes student success.

Study how sieve plates and suction-cupped tube feet enable sea stars to catch prey and move through water Sea star arms—typically five in number—are see video of tube foot anatomy and physiology), which may be sucker-tipped or pointed. A sea star can lose one or more arms and grow new ones. Its tube feet enable it to creep in any direction and cling to steep surfaces. watch a starfish's tube feet pry open a mussel's shell and extrude its stomach onto the mussel Primitive sea stars feed by sweeping organic particles that collect along the arm grooves into the mouth on the underside of the disk. Advanced forms either evert (turn outward) the see video of sea star preying upon a mussel). The internal skeleton of the sea star consists of limy plates. Observe sea star reproduction, from egg and sperm release and fertilization to development of zooplankton embryos and larvae Sea star reproduction typically is heterosexual, but hermaphroditism (reproductive organs of both sexes in one animal) occurs, and a few sea stars reproduce asexually by division of the body (fragmentation). Some brood their eggs and young; nonbrooders may release into the water as many as 2.5 million eggs at a time ( see video of sea star life cycle). Sea stars belong to three orders: Phanerozonia, Spinulosa, and Forcipulata. Albatrossaster richardi has been taken at a depth of 6,035 metres (19,800 feet) near the Cape Verde Islands. The mud star ( Cteno discus crispatus), about 10 cm (4 inches) across, with...