• Kingdom: Animalia
  • Phylum: Echinodermata
  • Subphylum: Asterozoa
  • Class: Asteroidea
  • Order: Velatida
  • Family: Pterasteridae
  • Scientific name: Pteraster militaris
  • Norwegian: -

Characteristics:

Typical for the Pterasteridae family members are the spined papillae on the dorsal side. A soft skin is covering the spines, giving the surface of these sea stars a untidy, bumpy appearance. There are two to five spines on each papilla, in contrast to the similar, but smaller, Pteraster pulvillus, on which the papillae have 8-15 spines. P. militaris may reach a diameter of 85 mm, while P. pulvillus does not exceed 40 mm.

The color of P. militaris is white, pale yellow or orange. It has five, sometimes red-tipped, arms. A third member of this family, P. obscurus has 6-8 arms.

Habitat:

It seems most frequent on rocky substrate, deeper than 20 meters.

Distribution:

This is a circumpolar species, found in the Arctic as well as the northern parts of the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean, as far south as the North Sea and New Foundland.