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
Crown-of-thorns starfish starfish larvae in experimental studies gave support for a mechanism for starfish outbreaks: increased terrestrial runoff → increased nutrients denser phytoplankton↑→ better larval survival → increased starfish populations There have been further conformations of these connections, however research by Olson (1987), Kaufmann (2002), and Byrne (2016) suggests terrestrial runoff has little or no impact on larval survival. The conflicting data describing the negligible role of terrestrial agricultural runoff has been described as "an inconvenient study". There is also a flow-on effect in that where there are large starfish populations producing large numbers of larvae, there is likely to be heavy