:-O happening now... starfish en mass are MELTING literally quote: Wonderful & thoughtful post by Wish Uponastar...image by Richard Wood~ Here you can see that the starfish does not possess a head the way you and I do. The circle of arms connect at the bodys slightly raised center. Below a stomach is positioned in the center accessible via a small mouth. The starfish has a skeleton consisting of hard lime plates. The plates are flexible and contain many spines. Every portion of the body hard or soft or flexible is covered by a thin living material. I think the reason we are seeing the melting of these animals (echinoderms) is due, in part, to the following...there is a body cavity inside the starfish that extends out into the long arms which contains mostly seawater, which is its circulatory system. The cavitys liquid transports dissolved food particles and oxygen. Furthermore, starfish also move by way of tube feet. They are not the legs that we see, but tiny flexible tubes that form grooves on the underside of each of the starfish arms; they act like suction cups. Water canals connect each tube foot. Water is pumped continuously into the hollow tube feet enabling them to lengthen, forcing the water out causes the canals to retract. Movement occurs when many tube feet reach out simultaneously, attach to a surface then subsequently shorten pulling the starfish onward. As you can see not only is contaminated sea water in the body cavity, but also in the arms, and water canals connecting the tube feet, permitting maximum exposure of radiated water to a small creature. While I am not a marine biologist, after reading about these amazing creatures I wondered if their unique biology hasnt more readily contributed to their rapid demise in Fukushima contaminated ocean water.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 00:41:44 +0000
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