Basket Star
The basket star (Gorgonocephalus caputmedusae) is a large brittle star of the cold North Atlantic whose five arms branch repeatedly into thousands of fine tips. At night it climbs onto a high perch and spreads these arms like a net across the current.
The basket star (Gorgonocephalus caputmedusae) is a large brittle star of the cold North Atlantic whose five arms branch repeatedly into thousands of fine tips. At night it climbs onto a high perch and spreads these arms like a net across the current.
🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Basket Star in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Deuterostomia lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.
A Living Fishing Net
The fine branches are lined with tiny hooks that snare plankton and small crustaceans drifting past. The animal periodically curls an arm to its mouth and wipes off the catch. By day it coils into a tight ball and hides.
Relatives of the Brittle Star
Basket stars are ophiuroids, like the brittle stars, and have a central disc with flexible arms. The branching arms give them a vast capture area for their size. See Common Brittle Star.
Name
The species name caputmedusae refers to the head of Medusa, the snaky-haired monster of Greek myth.
Basket Star at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Gorgonocephalus caputmedusae |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Echinodermata |
| Class | Ophiuroidea |
| Order | Euryalida |
| Family | Gorgonocephalidae |
| Field Guide group | Deuterostomia: Echinodermata (Sea Stars & Allies) |
| Diagnostic feature (Field Guide) | Heavily branched serpentine arms radiating in exponential fractals, hooklet-bearing arm segments to snag zooplankton. |
| Class | Ophiuroidea |
| Feeding | Suspension feeding with branched arms |
See Also
- Common Brittle Star — a related ophiuroid
- Common Starfish — another echinoderm