You don’t have to twist our arms to have us share our love of the basket star! These deep-sea denizens are echinoderms, a group that includes sea stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, sea cucumbers, and kin. The brilliant basket stars boast a compact body and long branching arms. This mesmerizing mass of twisting and turning limbs are expertly adept at ensnaring prey that drifts by in the currents.
The mighty Japanese Spider Crab is larger than life. They roam along the seafloor on their long limber legs, which can span up to 12 feet from claw to claw! These slow-moving scavengers spend much of their time searching for dead and decaying fish, invertebrates, and seaweed on the seafloor. Yum!
A dive into the deep sea reveals twinkling lights in the midst of darkness. This light doesn’t come from the sun—sunlight can’t penetrate to these depths—it comes from the animals that live here. Scientists call this living light show bioluminescence—when living organisms create their own light using a chemical reaction.
