http://space-leviathan.tumblr.com/post/76567892554/androideillogique-get-off-of-me

I don’t think all starfish can regrow arms… ?

Okay, you asked for it! This is an extract from my undergraduate palaeontology textbook – which has stuck with me when many other things about palaeontology have not:

“Most modern starfish are voracious predators and feed on molluscs, in particular preying actively on bivalves. When a starfish such as Asterias locates a bivalve it climbs on top of it, engages the two valves with its suckered tube-feet, and for several minutes or longer pulls the two valves in opposite directions. Eventually the stress set up becomes too great for the bivalve’s adductor muscles, and the valves open slightly. The starfish then everts its stomach out of its mouth and squeezes it bit by bit inside the opened valves. Digestion of the soft parts [of the bivalve] takes place with the shell, and when feeding is complete the stomach returns inside the starfish again.” [italics mine]

Isn’t that the grossest thing you ever heard?

Hahahahaha, I know, it wasn’t very nice of me to share BUT I HAD TO.

Indeed? That is very heartening! Tell me some gross things about starfish so I can stop feeling bad for them.

It would be awful! It would be like our arms and legs were zombies!

I KNOW! TERRIFYING BUT REAL.

I like my legs too! The whole thing made me think of poor mopey Eeyore missing his tail.

Hahahaha, I know! When I told my podcast partner Whiskey Jenny about this, she shrieked and said that was so scary because you and your arms are supposed to be in this together! Betrayal from within! (she said)