To the untrained eye, the ancient brittle star fossil above looks like what you’d expect of a now-especially-brittle echinoderm. But the fossil is quite rare: It captures the moment at which the ...

Along the western coast of Mexico, a patterned sea creature stretched its five arms across the sandy coral. Something about it caught the attention of passing scientists. But identifying the ...

An unassuming starfish species found around the world has a shocking amount of DNA hidden inside its cells. The brooding brittle star (Amphipholis squamata), which has a tiny disk-shaped body and long ...

The Marianna Trench is the deepest area of the ocean, and therefore one of the most mysterious underwater regions in the world. The Mariana Trench Environment and Ecology Research expedition (MEER) ...

Deep beneath the ocean's surface, a groundbreaking DNA study reveals that the deep sea is far more globally connected than once thought. By analyzing thousands of brittle stars preserved in museum ...

Brittle stars (Class Ophiuroidea) represent a remarkably diverse group of echinoderms with an extensive fossil record that has long provided insight into marine evolution and biogeography. Recent ...

In the shallow waters off the coast of Taiwan, a new long-armed creature was discovered. Matt Tsai via Unsplash In the rocky intertidal zones along the coast of Taiwan, a five-armed creature scuttles ...

As mist lingers over a Swedish fjord lined with towering, forested cliffs, a group of scientists collect mud from the bottom of the turquoise-colored waters. They’re after brittle stars—marine animals ...

Scientists found a five-armed sea creature along the coast of Mexico and discovered a new species misidentified for 160 years, a study said. Photo from Paweł Kozak via Unsplash Along the western coast ...