| Mithrodia clavigera | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Mithrodia clavigera in the Maldives | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Echinodermata |
| Class: | Asteroidea |
| Order: | Valvatida |
| Family: | Mithrodiidae |
| Genus: | Mithrodia |
| Species: | M. clavigera |
| Binomial name | |
| Mithrodia clavigera (Lamarck, 1816) | |
Mithrodia clavigera is a species of tropical starfish in the family Mithrodiidae. [1] [2] It has pale flesh tone with large brick-red patches. Its Specimens preserved in alcohol become uniformly white.
An echinoderm is any member of the phylum Echinodermata. The adults are recognisable by their radial symmetry, and include starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea cucumbers, as well as the sea lilies or "stone lilies". Adult echinoderms are found on the sea bed at every ocean depth, from the intertidal zone to the abyssal zone. The phylum contains about 7,000 living species, making it the second-largest grouping of deuterostomes, after the chordates. Echinoderms are the largest entirely marine phylum. The first definitive echinoderms appeared near the start of the Cambrian.
Starfish or sea stars are star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea. Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to as brittle stars or basket stars. Starfish are also known as asteroids due to being in the class Asteroidea. About 1,900 species of starfish occur on the seabed in all the world's oceans, from warm, tropical zones to frigid, polar regions. They are found from the intertidal zone down to abyssal depths, at 6,000 m (20,000 ft) below the surface.
A keystone species is a species which has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance, a concept introduced in 1969 by the zoologist Robert T. Paine. Keystone species play a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community, affecting many other organisms in an ecosystem and helping to determine the types and numbers of various other species in the community. Without keystone species, the ecosystem would be dramatically different or cease to exist altogether. Some keystone species, such as the wolf, are also apex predators.
The crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci, is a large starfish that preys upon hard, or stony, coral polyps (Scleractinia). The crown-of-thorns starfish receives its name from venomous thorn-like spines that cover its upper surface, resembling the biblical crown of thorns. It is one of the largest starfish in the world.
Tube feet are small active tubular projections on the oral face of an echinoderm, whether the arms of a starfish, or the undersides of sea urchins, sand dollars and sea cucumbers; they are more discreet though present on brittle stars, and have only a feeding function in feather stars. They are part of the water vascular system.
The Valvatida are an order of starfish in the class Asteroidea, which contains 695 species in 172 genera in 17 families.
The common starfish, common sea star or sugar starfish is the most common and familiar starfish in the north-east Atlantic. Belonging to the family Asteriidae, it has five arms and usually grows to between 10–30 cm across, although larger specimens are known. The common starfish is usually orange or brownish in color, and sometimes violet; specimens found in deeper waters are pale. The common starfish is found on rocky and gravelly substrates where it feeds on mollusks and other benthic invertebrates.
Limacia clavigera, sometimes known by the common name orange-clubbed sea slug, is a sea slug, a species of dorid nudibranch. It is a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Polyceridae.
Culcita schmideliana, commonly known as the spiny cushion star, is a species of pin-cushion star. It has a variety of base colors and often patches of a different color. It is pentagonal in shape and lives in the tropical Indo-Pacific. This species is rarely kept by hobby aquarists.
Phyllachne is a genus of four cushion plant species in the family Stylidiaceae. Of the four species, two are endemic to New Zealand, while P. colensoi is also native to Tasmania and P. uliginosa is entirely endemic to southern South America and is the only species in the Stylidiaceae native to the Americas. The movement of P. colensoi to colonize Tasmania is a relatively recent move. Molecular studies group P. colensoi, P. clavigera, and P. rubra together in one clade with P. uliginosa in the sister clade. Based on molecular clock data of the rbcL gene, it is estimated that P. uliginosa last shared a common ancestor with the New Zealand clade about 6 million years ago.
Tillandsia clavigera is a species in the genus Tillandsia. This species is native to Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador.
Reishia clavigera is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails.
Caño Cristales is a Colombian river located in the Serrania de la Macarena province of Meta, and is a tributary of the Guayabero River. It was found in 1969, by a group of cattle farmers. The river is commonly called the "River of Five Colors" or the "Liquid Rainbow," and is noted for its striking colors. The bed of the river from the end of July through November is variously colored yellow, green, blue, black, and especially red, the last caused by Macarenia clavigera plants on the riverbed.
Grosmannia clavigera is a species of sac fungus that causes blue stain in wood. It spreads to lodgepole pine, ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, and whitebark pine trees from the body and a special structure in the heads of mountain pine beetles. The blue stain fungus has evolved a relationship with mountain pine beetles that allow them to travel from tree to tree on a special structure in the beetle's heads and stops the tree from producing resin to pitch out or kill the beetle, encouraging the pine beetle infestation occurring all along the Rocky Mountains from Mexico into Canada. The beetles are able to mine and lay eggs while avoiding the tree's defenses. The 33 Mb genome of this fungus was sequenced in 2009.
The Mithrodiidae is a family of starfish in the order Valvatida.
The Mithrodia is a genus of starfish in the family Mithrodiidae.
The Knysna velvet worm is a species of velvet worm in the Peripatopsidae family. This species has 17 pairs of legs with claws, with the last pair of legs reduced. Peripatopsis clavigera is found in subtropical or tropical moist montane forests of South Africa.
Mithrodia bradleyi, known as Bradley's sea star, is a species of sea star. It was first described to science by Addison Emory Verrill in 1870. It was named after Frank Howe Bradley, who collected, in Panama, the type specimen described by Verrill.
Rhabdosphaera clavigera is a marine, unicellular species of coccolithophore in the genus Rhabdosphaera. The species name references the Latin word claviger to describe the pentameral (five-point) spines emerging from the calcium carbonate coccosphere. The stylifera variant has shorter, thinner, and symmetrical spines, as compared to the type species.
Thromidia seychellesensis is a species of starfish of the Mithrodiidae family and was described in 1977.
Levina, E.V.; Kalinovskii, A.I.; Ermakova, S.P.; Dmitrenok, P.S. (September 2012). "Steroid Compounds from Pacific Starfish Mithrodia clavigera and Their Toxicity to Human Melanoma Cells". Russian Journal of Bioorganic Chemistry. 38 (5): 520–525. doi:10.1134/S1068162012050093.
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