Brittle star - Simple English Wikipedia

# Brittle star

### From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

Brittle stars are much like sea stars. They are also invertebrates, they belong to the same family of animals (Echinodermata), and they also have some kind of radial symmetry in their bodies. Usually, they have 5 arms that can grow very long (up to 60cm, on the largest species). Unlike sea stars however, they live much deeper in the ocean. There seem to be brittle stars even at depths below 6000m, what scientists call abysymal depth. Generally, brittle stars live below 500m of depth.

There are two different (closely related) groups, brittle stars (Ophiurida) and basket stars (Eurialida). Basket stars usually live in the deeper parts of the range.

A basket star in some kind of plant | A basket star Astrophyton darwinium | A brittle star collecting coral eggs | A brittle star on a sponge

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Category: Invertebrates

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