Dr. Frederieke Kroon looking at a crown-of-thorns starfish on the Great Barrier Reef. Photo by D. Westcott / CSIRO Crown-of-thorns starfish are coral-eating creatures that can have more than a ...

Meet the crown-of-thorns starfish. But don t ever touch one. This huge, 18-inch-wide starfish comes covered in sharp venomous spines that can land you in the hospital if you tried to pick one up ...

Starfish, crown of thorns, and sea stars live throughout the subtropics and tropics. They are bottom dwellers, so any contact with a diver is accidental. Injury occurs from the spine and the venom ...

Crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) are a predator of reef-building corals throughout the Indo-Pacific, where population outbreaks have led to loss of coral cover and biodiversity. Bernie Degnan and ...

Adorned with spikes and toxins, crown-of-thorns starfish aren’t an easy meal. In fact, it’s long been thought that few animals could eat them. But an analysis of fish poop and stomach contents ...

Research into one of the most persistent coral predators on the Great Barrier Reef has revealed a troubling paradox in reef ecosystems: the crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) appears to thrive in the ...

"The blue starfish is also a coral reef predator that lives in the same habitat as the crown-of-thorns starfish, but it doesn't produce these uncontrollable outbreaks," said Prof. Satoh.

Researchers have uncovered an under-the-sea phenomenon where coral-destroying crown-of-thorns starfish larvae have been feasting on blue-green algae bacteria known as "sea sawdust." The team of ...

As juveniles the crown-of-thorns starfish are vegetarian, favouring a particular type of algae. But the study found they they would eat much more in order to survive.

Crown-of-thorns starfish (taramea) being buried. Image courtesy of Konini Rongo. When the project began in 2020, the team even eschewed scuba gear and simply free-dove for the starfish.

A new theory explains how juvenile crown-of-thorns starfish can destabilise coral reefs. The "degraded reef framework" explains how the loss of live coral, which crown-of-thorns starfish feed off ...