Crown-of-thorns starfish occurs where coral reefs or hard coral communities occur in this region. The body form of the crown-of-thorns starfish is fundamentally the same as that of a typical starfish, with a central disk and radiating arms. Its special traits, however, include being disc-shaped, multiple-armed, flexible, prehensile, and heavily spined, and having a large ratio of stomach surface to body mass. Its prehensile ability arises from the two rows of numerous tube feet that extend to the tip of each arm. In being multiple-armed, it has lost the five-fold symmetry (pentamerism) typical of starfish, although it begins its life cycle with
Common starfish mass strandings have occurred in Britain and elsewhere at such places as Holkham Beach in Norfolk in 2009, near Sandwich in Kent in 2008, and near Brighton ten days later. A similar occurrence occurred on the shore of the White Sea where vast numbers of starfish came ashore on a nine-mile stretch of beach in 2004. It was said that people could not "walk around them because the whole shore was full of starfish". Russian experts expressed mystification as to the cause of the stranding. Common starfish The common starfish or common sea star ("Asterias rubens") is the most common