Country intro
Giant Basket Star
Seen on a night dive on Bari Reef, Sep 13, 2017.
During the day, as I will show in the next spotting, they look like a birds nest as their arms are all bundled up wherever they are resting, be it a coral, sponge etc. But at night they are active and display their curly arms, looking as tree branches.
The giant basket star, ''Astrophyton muricatum'', is an echinoderm found in shallow parts of the tropical western Atlantic and throughout the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. It is the only species in the genus ''Astrophyton''. During the day, it curls up into a tight ball shape to protect itself from predators. At night, it climbs to an elevated point to feed by extending its intricately branched feeding arms in a bowl-like shape in order to snare passing plankton and other organisms from.. more
