Page 61 - Caribbean Reef Life Demo

Brittle stars are one of the most common creatures on a healthy reef, and one of the most successful. They go back over 450 million years in the fossil records. Most active at night, they can be seen in the daytime resting inside sponges or hiding under pieces of rubble in the shallows. Brittle stars feed mainly on detritus marine debris but can also catch and devour small invertebrates, using ve sets of jaws below their central disc to chew their meals. They have no eyes, but they are able to detect light from crystallized lenses built directly into the skeletons of their arms, one of the simplest forms of vision in the ocean. Brittle stars are either male or female and on certain nights in late summer they gather together in dense groups to spawn into the water column.
Although brittle stars can move uickly across the reef, they can be preyed upon if caught out in the open. They can shake off one of their limbs which will continue to wiggle about, distracting the sh while the brittle star escapes. It can easily regenerate this lost limb and even regenerate any lost internal organs after a more serious attack.
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