Abstract: Beneath a starfish’s skin lies a skeleton made of pebbly growths, called ossicles, which mostly consist of the mineral calcite. Calcite is usually fragile, and even more so when it is porous. But the hole-riddled ossicles of the knobby starfish (Protoreaster nodosus) are strengthened through an unexpected internal arrangement, researchers report in the Feb. 11 Science.
The article discusses a new discovery made by scientists at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Using an electron microscope they were able to analyze the structure of starfish skeletons wherein they made leeway in understanding the cause of their rigidity.
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