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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cleon" data-source="post: 8675593" data-attributes="member: 57383">Hmm, it's a bit lacking in pizzazz methinks.Also, as discussed with the brittle star it isn't chitin:How about:Basket stars, or Gorgonocephalids, are starfish closely related to brittle stars. They have five arms which branch many times into hundreds of thin appendages, so the animal resembles a radiating bush or flower with a disc-shaped body buried at the center. Normal basket stars grow up to a couple of feet across, but giant basket star are monstrously big with arm baskets spanning 100 feet or so and bodies about 20 feet across. Like most echinoderms, they have an external skeleton of small calcareous plates that mesh together, this bony armor gives a giant basket star hide as tough as chainmail. Regular basket stars are mainly filter feeders but may also grab tiny animals (fish, crustaceans, etc.) who wander into their arms. When filter-feeding, a basket star rhythmically flexes its arms to sweep food from the water and towards the five-jawed mouth at the center of the beast. A Gorgonocephalid's arms can only handle active prey much smaller than itself: the biggest normal basket stars reach up to 2¼ ft. across but can only catch miniscule animals about an inch in length. A giant basket star, however, is so enormous it can manage creatures the size of a horse. A basket star's limbs have a thin coating of mucus to trap plankton and other edible detritus. If a snared creature resists capture, the arms exudes more mucus to entangle the victim in adhesive slime. Basket stars sometimes hold cocooned prey to eat later, often waiting until nightfall to feed under the cover of darkness.Tree of Sticky Death. While normal basket stars are primarily filter feeders the giant basket star is a more active predator. A giant basket star is an ambush hunter. It waits atop a rocky seamount or at the edge of a kelp forest pretending to be part of the local vegetation, then reaches out its arms to snatch at creatures that swim or walk within reach. Giant basket stars will only pursue a meal if they sense it is large and immobile, such as the carcass of a whale. Otherwise they normally only move to find a better perch for catching prey or to retreat from danger.</blockquote>

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