Awesome Nature #11

Sunflower Seastar
Type: Echinoderm Lives In: North-Eastern Pacific Ocean Conservation Status: Least Concern

Not only are starfish pretty awesome creatures but they're also very strange ones too. They're not actually fish, for one thing, which is probably why they're more commonly known as Seastars these days and the Sunflower Seastar is the biggest of them all. Indeed, it can reach a metre in diameter and, unlike most seastars which have a mere five arms, this monster can have up to twenty-four! It can be found in a variety of colours and can also move very quickly for a seastar using thousands of tube-like feet that cover its underside and they are used to good effect for it's an aggressive predator to the many smaller creatures that share its home off the west coast of North America where it is found it not inconsiderable numbers. Few of its neighbours pose a threat to it except for one: the king crab which can rip off the seastar's arms! Like most seastars though, this giant can simply regrow lost limbs meaning they're unlikely to disappear any time soon...

Why It Is Awesome: It's like a floppy sea-vacuum!