Starfish Fun Facts

Here’s a surprising starfish fun fact: Starfish aren’t really fish. Unlike real fish, they don’t have vertebrae and fins. Nor do most sea creatures much like to eat them—their skin is much too tough and spiny. Some starfish even have armor, like spikes all over their bodies.

In “Starfish and Space Dust,” though, these starfish fun facts aren’t really important. The book is the second in Rob Schapiro’s illustrated children’s book series about Little Fly and Morgan, and one of its main characters—a wise old Starfish—is there to teach them more about gravity, stars and planets than about starfish fun facts.

For those who want to know more, here are some starfish fun facts:

• What do starfish look like? Starfish have five arms and are, guess what, star shaped.
• How do starfish move? They have little tubes under their bodies that act like feet to carry them along the bottom of the sea.
• What do starfish eat? Usually they eat mussels, clams and oysters.  They feed by crawling over animals that move very slowly and then pushing their stomachs out of their mouths and over or inside their prey. Yuck!! This allows them to eat creatures that are too big to fit into their mouths.

 Take a look at these sites to learn more starfish fun facts

Watch a starfish grow
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html

The Animal Kingdom
http://www.perspective.com/nature/animalia/starfish.html

Ocean Futures Society
http://www.oceanfutures.org/spongebob/gallery/gallery_pim133g1.asp

 

Want to know more about starfish? Starfish fun facts can be found throughout the book Starfish and Spacedust. Get your copy now!