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Ocean Portal

The best of the ocean and its science, brought to you by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's Ocean Portal. Visit us at http://ocean.si.edu.We claim no ownership or copyright of any of the images posted. If you are the owner of a specific image & would like it removed, please message & we will do so promptly.
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Invertebrates close-up never fail to please: with their bright colors and strange structures, they begin to take on patterns that are more art than animal.

So is true of this series of close-up photographs of starfish taken by researcher and photographer Alexander Semenov. But it isn’t enough to call them art: why are all those finger-like appendages waving around? And what are those bulbous spikes (or floral bouquets, if you’re feeling romantic)?

Lucky for us, two floors up from the Ocean Portal office sits Dr. Chris Mah, an expert on echinoderms (a group of ocean animals that includes starfish, sea urchins and brittle stars) at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. He helped us to fill in some of the details.