Smooth Sunstar
Solaster endeca

f22 @ 1/60S, ASA 25, Kodachrome 25 slide film, Nikonos II w 28mm and close up lens, Oceanic 2000 strobe


"Solaster endeca," Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Solaster endeca can grow to about 40 cm (16 in) across, but 20 cm (7.9 in) a more normal adult size is half that. It is a robust species with 9 or 10 arms (occasionally any number from seven to 13) set around a large disc. The aboral (upper) surface is formed of calcareous plates densely covered with paxillae, peg-like projections covered in tiny spinelets. The purple sun star occurs in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea at depths to 450 m (1,480 ft). Its typical habitats are muddy sand, gravel, or rocky areas with deposited sediment. It is found in both sheltered and fairly exposed locations.[4] It also has a circumboreal distribution and is found round the coasts of Greenland, northeastern Canada, and the East Coast of the United States as far south as the Gulf of Maine.
Jeffreys Ledge, Gulf of Maine
 
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