#5061 · 🪼 jellyfish, starfish, worms & co
Chocolate Chip Sea Star
Protoreaster nodosus
🪼 Jellyfish, starfish, worms & co 📍 outside Europe
7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
Protoreaster nodosus , commonly known as the horned sea star or chocolate chip sea star , is a species of sea star found in the warm, shallow waters of the Indo-Pacific region. They are sometimes seen in the marine aquarium trade.
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.
- 3,443 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named in 1758 (268 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Chocolate Chip Sea Star
- scientific name
- Protoreaster nodosus
- class
- Asteroidea
- order
- Valvatida
- family
- Oreasteridae
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings worldwide
- 3,443
- GBIF records in NL
- 0
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1758
relatives· Oreasteridae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 50412, Wikidata Q1777525, GBIF 5187269, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.