Purple sea urchins, beware: There’s a purple urchin-eating predator on the horizon — and its name is the sunflower sea star. That’s the plot line coming from a small upstart research facility in Moss ...

Already, the new kelp is helping the ecosystem show glimpses of its former self. During a recent dive, a plump sunflower sea ...

THERE HAS BEEN A SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGH AND A LOCAL MARINE BIOLOGY LAB PLAYED A KEY ROLE. THE "SUNFLOWER STAR LAB" IN MOSS LANDING IS REPORTING ADVANCEMENT IN WHAT IS CALLED "SEA STAR CRYPTO ...

A sunflower sea star may be about to snack on some sea urchins in California. Brent Durand/Moment via Getty Images Before 2013, divers on North America’s west coast rarely saw purple sea urchins. The ...

The sunflower sea star (Pycnopodia helianthoides) can be found throughout intertidal and subtidal coastal waters of the northeast Pacific Ocean, from Alaska to at least northern Baja California, ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. While they have no backbone, sunflower sea stars (Pycnopodia ...

In this photo provided by the Hakai Institute, researcher Alyssa Gehman from the Hakai Institute counts and measures sunflower sea stars in the Burke Channel on the Central Coast of British Columbia, ...

Billions of sea stars have wasted away in recent years, their crustose, spiny bodies melted to goop by a mysterious illness known as sea star wasting disease. The culprit behind this epidemic has ...

A mysterious illness has killed billions of sea stars in the past decade. After a four-year search, scientists have uncovered the culprit: a bacterium known as Vibrio pectenicida. The team reported ...

Stars of the Sea is a new exhibit at the Aquarium of the Pacific. Visitors meet sea stars such as the venomous crown-of-thorns and spider-like brittle stars and learn about how the nonprofit Aquarium ...

It was the beginning of a sea star wasting disease outbreak that would nearly wipe out all the sunflower sea stars along the coast. Their disappearance, combined with a massive marine heat wave called ...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Rebecca Vega Thurber, University of California, Santa Barbara (THE CONVERSATION) ...