Crown-of-thorns starfish
Amazing fact
Crown-of-thorns starfish push their stomach out through the mouth to digest prey outside the body.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Crown-of-thorns starfish push their stomach out through the mouth to digest prey outside the body.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Crown-of-thorns starfish
- Scientific name
- Acanthaster planci
- Japanese name
- オニヒトデ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Class
- Asteroidea
- Order
- Valvatida
- Family
- Acanthasteridae
- Genus
- Acanthaster
A large starfish that lives in seas south of the Kii Peninsula and across the Pacific, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and beyond.
Because it eats coral, it sometimes appears in huge numbers and does great damage to coral reefs.
How the Crown-of-thorns starfish lives
As larvae in the water, they eat small planktonic organisms. Young ones feed at night in exposed areas on the outer side of the reef. They crawl over reefs and coral rubble. They use their tube feet to sense chemicals and touch when finding prey.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Diet
- Coral
- Range
- South of the Kii Peninsula, the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Red Sea, and elsewhere
Where the Crown-of-thorns starfish has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- オニヒトデ
- 简体中文
- 长棘海星
- 繁體中文
- 棘冠海星
- 한국어
- 악마불가사리
- Español
- Corona de espinas
- Français
- Acanthaster pourpre
- Deutsch
- Dornenkronenseestern
- Português (Brasil)
- Coroa-de-espinhos
- Italiano
- Stella corona di spine viola
- العربية
- نجم البحر المكلل بالشوك
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Bintang laut mahkota duri
- Русский
- Терновый венец
- ไทย
- ดาวมงกุฎหนาม
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — オニヒトデChecked: 2026-11-04
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Acanthaster planciChecked: 2026-11-06
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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