Animalia > Echinodermata > Asteroidea > Forcipulatida > Asteriidae > Pycnopodia > Pycnopodia helianthoides

Pycnopodia helianthoides (Sunflower sea star)

Synonyms: Asterias helianthoides

Wikipedia Abstract

Pycnopodia helianthoides, commonly known as the sunflower seastar, is a large sea star found in the northeast Pacific. It is among the largest sea stars in the world (but not quite the largest), with a maximum armspan of 1 m (3.3 ft). Sunflower seastars usually have 16 to 24 limbs; their color can vary widely. They are predatory, feeding mostly on sea urchins, clams, snails, and other small invertebrates.
View Wikipedia Record: Pycnopodia helianthoides

Endangered Species

Status: Critically Endangered
View IUCN Record: Pycnopodia helianthoides

Attributes

Water Biome [1]  Benthic
Diet [1]  Omnivore

Prey / Diet

Predators

Enhydra lutris (Sea Otter)[3]
Larus glaucescens (Glaucous-winged Gull)[5]
Loxorhynchus grandis (sheep crab)[3]
Pycnopodia helianthoides (Sunflower sea star)[3]
Solaster stimpsoni (Striped sun star)[3]

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 2Herrlinger, TJ, (1983) THE DIET AND PREDATOR-PREY RELATIONSHIPS OF THE SEA STAR PYCNOPODIA HELIANTHOIDES (BRANDT) FROM A CENTRAL CALIFORNIA KELP FOREST Master of Arts Thesis, San Jose State University
♦ 3Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 4D. J. Moitoza and D. W. Phillips, Prey defense, predator preference, and nonrandom diet: The interactions between Pycnopodia helianthoides and two species of sea urchins, Marine Biology Volume 53, Number 4 (1979), 299-304
♦ 5Wootton, J. Timothy. "Estimates and tests of per capita interaction strength: diet, abundance, and impact of intertidally foraging birds." Ecological Monographs 67.1 (1997): 45+. Academic OneFile. Web. 23 July 2010
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0