#4851 · 🪼 jellyfish, starfish, worms & co

Common Sea Star

🇳🇱 Gewone zeester ·Asterias rubens

🪼 Jellyfish, starfish, worms & co 📍 in the Netherlands

10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

1. © Alexander Semenov · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
2. © ipat · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
3. © Bernard Picton · CC BY 4.0
4. © diveready3 · CC BY-NC 4.0
5. © Ates Evirgen · CC BY-NC 4.0
6. © Bernard Picton · CC BY 4.0
7. © Guido Schmitz · CC BY-NC 4.0
8. © Jamie O'Neill · CC BY 4.0
9. © Andrei · CC BY-NC 4.0
10. © akinisbet · CC BY-NC 4.0

what is it?

The common starfish or common sea star ( Asterias rubens ) is the most common and familiar starfish in the north-east Atlantic. Belonging to the family Asteriidae, it has five arms and usually grows to between 10–30 cm across, although larger specimens (up to 52 cm across) are known. The common starfish is usually orange or brown, and sometimes violet; deep-water specimens are pale. The common starfish is to be found on rocky and gravelly substrates where it feeds on...

base stats

NL sightings 505iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 8,297iNaturalist observations

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

Spotted 505 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #5 most seen of the jellyfish, starfish, worms & co in NL.
8,297 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named in 1758 (268 years ago).