Crossaster papposus

The common sunstar is named after the fact that it looks like a sun with its 8 to 14 arms. Its colorful, sunny appearance makes you think it has a nice character, but nothing is farther from the truth. It is a fearsome predator, which scares the daylights out of common starfish and other smaller marine animals. The common sunstar is quite fast for a starfish, reaching top speeds of 70 centimeters per minute. There are films where you see how brittle stars and sea urchins run away as soon as a sunstar is in the vicinity. If they are not fast enough, they are inevitably consumed.

 A very distinctive sun star that grows up to 34 cm in diameter. The colour varies but is usually red, brown-red with white markings above, yellow-white below, often with beautiful patterns. It has 10-12 arms (rarely 8-16) and the whole surface of the animal is covered with small but distinct spines.

Biology/Natural History: Diet includes sea pens, nudibranchs such as Archidoris odhneri and Coryphella sp, the scallops Chlamys hastata and C. rubida, bryozoans, and tunicates. Has been known to attack the seastar Evasterias troschelii and Leptasterias sp. Predators include the seastars Solaster dawsoni and Pycnopodia helianthoides. May have the symbiotic polychaete worm Arctonoe vittata. This species can move relatively fast for a seastar--up to 70 cm/minute. Spawns March to April. Juveniles often cluster subtidally in masses of the tubedwelling polychaete Phyllochaetopterus prolifica. Grow slowly--maximum size is achieved after about 10 years.

This many-rayed seastar has a broad central disk and 8-16 rays, has abundant scattered spines (paxillae) on the aboral surface (photo) but no pedicellariae. Its color is a rose-red with light pink or white (picture) (sometines yellow or orange). Up to 30 cm diameter.

A starfish with many arms, usually 13 but occasionally from 8-14. Colour is variable from dirty brown through dirty purple to a beautiful red form with concentric rings of white. The texture is very spiny with large groups of bristly spines over the dorsal surface. Typically 25cm up to 35cm diameter. The only other sunstar to be found in shallow water is Solaster endeca.

Arctic Ocean, Barents Sea, Bay of Biscay, Belgian Exclusive Economic Zone, British Isles, Brittany, Calais, Canadian part of the Arctic Ocean, Circumboreal, Cobscook Bay, Davis Strait, Dutch Exclusive Economic Zone, England, English Channel, European waters (ERMS scope), FAO fishing area 18, FAO fishing area 21, French Exclusive Economic Zone [Atlantic part], Greenland, Gulf of Maine, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Hudson Strait, Iceland, Irish Exclusive economic Zone, Kara Sea, Kattegat, Kola Bay, Netherlands, Newfoundland Basin, North American Basin, North East Atlantic, North Pacific, North West Atlantic, Norway, Okhotsk Sea, Pacific Ocean, Rockall Trough, Saguenay Fjord, Sargasso Sea, Sea of Japan, St. Lawrence Estuary, Sweden, Swedish Exclusive Economic Zone, Trondheim, United Kingdom Exclusive Economic Zone, United States part of the North Atlantic Ocean, USA, West European Basin, White Sea

North Atlantic and Pacific Coasts: (Himmelman and Dutil, 1991) One can find C. papposus from Alaska to Puget Sound, from the Artic to the Gulf of Maine. (MConnaughey and McConnaighey, 1985) It is common in British waters and in eastern Maine and can often be found in the lower intertidal zone from the Eastport area northward. (Hayward and Ryland, 1995)

Biogeographic Regions: atlantic ocean (Native ); pacific ocean (Native )

From low intertidal to more than 200 m depth, mainly on coarse sand and gravel, all round the British Isles

Arctic to Gulf of Maine

Geographical Range: Bering Sea to Puget Sound; Arctic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, North Sea, western Baltic sea (circumpolar)

Common and widespread all round the British Isles but rare on the south coast.

Crossaster papposus ranges from 8" to 14" in diameter. It has many arms (between 8 and 14) the length of one-half its radius. It is scarlet on top with concentric bands of white, pink, yellow, or dark red, and it is white on the underside. Its entire upper surface is sparsely covered with brushlike bristles. (McConnaughey and McConnaughey, 1985) These bristles, called pseudopaxillae, consist of bundles of fine spines atop short stumps. The mouth area is bare, and it has two rows of sucker-tipped sensory tube feet. (Gosner, 1978)

How to Distinguish from Similar Species: Solaster stimpsoni and S. dawsoni have much smaller central disks in relation to their total diameter and do not have the abundant aboral spines nor this coloration. Pycnopodia helianthoides has more rays (when mature), grows larger, and has abundant pedicellariae, plus its rays are very flabby.

Crossaster papposus is found on rock bottoms, ranging from the low tide line to approximately 1080' (329m) deep. (McConnaughey and McConnaughey, 1985) It is tolerant of strong sunlight. (Coleman, 1991)

Aquatic Biomes: coastal

Known from rocky shores.

bathyal, infralittoral and circalittoral of the Gulf and estuary

Known from seamounts and knolls

Depth range based on 1230 specimens in 1 taxon.
Water temperature and chemistry ranges based on 552 samples.

Environmental ranges
  Depth range (m): 0 - 45627
  Temperature range (°C): -1.770 - 11.851
  Nitrate (umol/L): 0.504 - 44.769
  Salinity (PPS): 27.165 - 35.352
  Oxygen (ml/l): 0.545 - 8.971
  Phosphate (umol/l): 0.091 - 3.312
  Silicate (umol/l): 1.791 - 175.486

Graphical representation

Depth range (m): 0 - 45627

Temperature range (°C): -1.770 - 11.851

Nitrate (umol/L): 0.504 - 44.769

Salinity (PPS): 27.165 - 35.352

Oxygen (ml/l): 0.545 - 8.971

Phosphate (umol/l): 0.091 - 3.312

Silicate (umol/l): 1.791 - 175.486
 
Note: this information has not been validated. Check this *note*. Your feedback is most welcome.

 Found on sand, stones, mussel and oyster beds from the infralittoral fringe to 50 m.

Depth Range: Extremely low intertidal to 1200 m. Mostly subtidal.

Habitat: Varied.

Found in sheltered sites with moderate tidal streams and semi-exposed rocky or bouldery sites. Frequent in brittle-star beds.

In its habitat, C. papposus is considered to be the dominant predator, along with Solaster endece, another species of predacious sea star. As a dominant predator, C. papposus plays an important role in determining community structure. (Himmelman and Dutil, 1991) Its abundance and frequent predatory activity suggests that it belongs to an important predatory guild. C. papposus has often been observed feeding on urchins, as well as on numerous other invertebrates, including echinoderms, bivalves, cnidarians, and tunicates. (Coleman, 1991) Cannibalism in C. papposus is rare, observed only after long starvation in captivity. (Sloan, 1984)

Direct development? Winter

Crossaster papposus, like most sea stars, has separate sexes, and fertilization is external. (Hickman and Roberts, 1995) Sexual reproduction produces lecithotropic larva in late winter. One-year-old individuals measure 1.8 to 4.0 cm in diameter, and there is a 2 cm annual growth increment during the following few years. (Himmelman and Dutil, 1991) Juvenile C. papposus tend to prefer sediment bottoms of the sea. Upon growing to 5cm in diameter, C. papposus migrates to shallow water (4-8cm in diameter) and then, with increasing size, it gradually moves to greater depths. (Himmelman and Dutil, 1991) Like other sea stars, C. papposus can regenerate injured or missing arms, as long as a portion of the central disc, where the arms converge, is intact. (Hickman and Roberts, 1995)

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 22
Specimens with Barcodes: 28
Species With Barcodes: 1

The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.

There are 20 barcode sequences available from BOLD and GenBank.  Below is a sequence of the barcode region Cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI or COX1) from a member of the species.  See the BOLD taxonomy browser for more complete information about this specimen and other sequences.

Download FASTA File

Unfortunately, information regarding the economic importance of C. papposus and its value to humans is either not well-studied, not well-documented, or simply inaccessible. As an aggressive predator high on its food web and as an agent of dispersal of both its competitors and prey, C. papposus clearly has a significant impact on its ecosystem.