#4979 · 🪼 jellyfish, starfish, worms & co
Cushion Star
🇳🇱 Vijfhoekige zeester ·Asterina gibbosa
🪼 Jellyfish, starfish, worms & co 📍 in Europe, not in NL
7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
Asterina gibbosa , commonly known as the starlet cushion star , is a species of starfish in the family Asterinidae. It is native to the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
base stats
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
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 3,993 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Thomas Pennant in 1777 (249 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Cushion Star
- Nederlands
- Vijfhoekige zeester
- scientific name
- Asterina gibbosa
- class
- Asteroidea
- order
- Valvatida
- family
- Asterinidae
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings in Europe
- 3,717
- sightings worldwide
- 3,993
- GBIF records in NL
- 4
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1777 by Thomas Pennant
relatives· Asterinidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 210121, Wikidata Q2513886, GBIF 2272109, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.