. The Australian Museum magazine. Natural history. lOfi THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM Mosaic starfish (Plectaster decanus). Usually an inhabitant of deep water, but not uncommonly found on rock faces in sheltered water below the limit of the low tide. In life this is an extremely brilliant object, the upper surface consisting of red patches ornaments 1 with a network of white calcareous ridges. Photo.—A. Miissi'avc. digestive organs of the original animal and takes them for its own use, though it grows a separate mouth of its own. The poor foster- mother (lies and ac- tually becomes part of
. The Australian Museum magazine. Natural history. lOfi THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM Mosaic starfish (Plectaster decanus). Usually an inhabitant of deep water, but not uncommonly found on rock faces in sheltered water below the limit of the low tide. In life this is an extremely brilliant object, the upper surface consisting of red patches ornaments 1 with a network of white calcareous ridges. Photo.—A. Miissi'avc. digestive organs of the original animal and takes them for its own use, though it grows a separate mouth of its own. The poor foster- mother (lies and ac- tually becomes part of the food of the new animal, whicfi has grown from a part of the foster- parent's body. The sea-urchin, which is also a close cousia of the starfish, has a development some- what similar. BRITTLE-STARS. quently attacks a morsel far larger than its own mouth (which is in the middh' of the underside of the central disc.) This does not distress the starfish, be- cause it can perform a most extraordin- ary feat with its inside. When it can- not get its food to its stomach, it does the opposite, and takes its stomach to the food. It projects its stomach out through its mouth, folds it around the victim, and keeps it there until all the food is digested. When that is done the stomach is drawn ba,ck again to its proper place. The walls of the stomach are very loose and crinkled inside tlip l)ody, and this allows for the necessary stretching. The starfish has the property of ab- solute indifference to mutilation. If divided into halves each half grows an- other, and we have two animals instead of one. The life history of the starfish is also very extraordinary. It comes from an egg which gives forth a tiny free-swimm- ing creature something like a micro- scopic worm. This animal grows and grows, but it is not the future starfish. For, after a time, from a small rudiment inside it another animal grows, and as it progresses it steals the stomach and Very curious are the brittle-staxs,.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
