The animal world never ceases to surprise. Recent studies have shown examples of cannibalism by harmless starfish
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himThey may look innocent and adorable, but young starfish are little "teenage cannibals" who eat their own siblings for survival.
The animal world never ceases to surprise. Recent studies have shown examples of cannibalism at the bottom of the oceans. The starfish are the protagonists Asterias forbesi: more recent studies reveal how the specimens of this species are dedicated to the practice of cannibalism, even eating members of the same family to survive.
William & Mary University's team of researchers, led by Professor Jon Allen in fact, he found this behavior in the pups of Asterias forbesi, while he was conducting another experiment to try to understand how the small starfish react when they are in contact with ferocious predatory crabs. Faced with the astonishing discovery, Allen and his team from the biology department immediately reversed course to observe this hitherto unknown phenomenon among the young of this species.
The Forbes starfish is commonly found on the east coast of the United States and its adult size ranges from 12 to 24 centimeters. Younger specimens are essentially a miniature of their parents, and in the process of growth they undergo a metamorphosis to the mature stage similar to that of butterflies. In their larval form, these starfish look like bizarre spaceships floating in seawater, says Karina Brocco French, who participated in Allen's research work.
The young remain in this stage for about a month, before turning into real stars and reaching the seabed. Scientists were already aware that young stars on the seabed ate larvae of their own species - but they did not imagine that they ate adult specimens as well. Yet, even if the young specimens are more or less all the same size, the larger ones generally end up eating the smaller ones. Allen and his team discovered that young starfish start cannibalizing as early as a few days after metamorphosis using one of their stomachs called a "heart stomach". (Read also: Polar bears forced to become cannibals (and it's our fault too))
Cannibalism, defined as the consumption of one or more parts of an individual of the same species, is one widespread practice in the animal kingdom. It is officially attested in more than 1300 species of invertebrates and vertebrates, including terrestrial and aquatic animals, even if the researchers hypothesize an even wider diffusion especially among small animals. It can manifest itself in different stages of the life of the species and has important effects on the behavior of the animals themselves, on survival strategies, on the number of members of a community and on the chances of reproduction.
Source: W&M Department of Biology / Ecology
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