🐙 Cell & Organismal Biology
Golden Feather Star
The golden feather star (Davidaster rubiginosus) is a Caribbean crinoid with many golden or orange arms, which opens into a feeding fan at night on reefs and walls.
The golden feather star (Davidaster rubiginosus) is a Caribbean crinoid with many golden or orange arms, which opens into a feeding fan at night on reefs and walls.
🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Golden Feather 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.
Night Feeders
By day it curls up in reef crevices, and at dusk it climbs to a perch and unfurls its arms to catch plankton. Feather stars cling to substrates with cirri on the underside of the body.
A Home for Other Animals
Commensal shrimps, brittle stars and crabs live among its arms. They are often colored to match the star and hide in its feathery fans.
Reef Fauna
Crinoids are sensitive to reef degradation and pollution. See Bennett's Feather Star.
Golden Feather Star at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Davidaster rubiginosus |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Echinodermata |
| Class | Crinoidea |
| Order | Comatulida |
| Family | Comatulidae |
| Field Guide group | Deuterostomia: Echinodermata (Sea Stars & Allies) |
| Diagnostic feature (Field Guide) | Orange-gold feathery arms fanned out from coral crevices to catch plankton; arms lined with tiny side branches (pinnules) that pass food to an upward-facing mouth. |
| Class | Crinoidea |
| Habitat | Caribbean reefs |
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