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Any one of numerous species of echinoderms belonging to the class Asterioidea, in which the body is star-shaped and usually has five rays, though the number of rays varies from five to forty or more. The rays are often long, but are sometimes so short as to appear only as angles to the disklike body. Called also sea st…

Next to the ambulacra; as, the adambulacral ossicles of the starfish.

embling a flower, as any species of actinia or sea anemone, and other Anthozoa, hydroids, starfishes, etc. -- Animal heat (Physiol.), the heat generated in the body of a living animal, by means of which the animal is kept at nearly a uniform temperature. -- Animal spirits. See under Spirit. -- Animal kingdom, the wh…

A starfish; one of the Asterioidea.

A class of Echinodermata including the true starfishes. The rays vary in number and always have ambulacral grooves below. The body is starshaped or pentagonal.

The larva of certain starfishes as developed in the free- swimming stage.

(Zoöl.) A peculiar early larval stage of certain starfishes, having a bilateral structure, and swimming by means of bands of vibrating cilia.

Any species of ophiuran starfishes. See Ophiuroidea.

The common European starfish (Asterias rubens).

A starfish.

is cut away on four sides, leaving vertical faces. -- Cushion star (Zoöl.) a pentagonal starfish belonging to Goniaster, Astrogonium, and other allied genera; -- so called from its form.

oöl.) See under Darn, v. t. -- Devil's fingers, Devil's hand (Zoöl.), the common British starfish (Asterias rubens); -- also applied to a sponge with stout branches. [Prov. Eng., Irish & Scot.] -- Devil's riding-horse (Zoöl.), the American mantis (Mantis Carolina). -- The Devil's tattoo, a drumming with the fingers o…

A starfish with five rays, esp. Asterias rubens.

-- in zoölogy, said of certain parts of radiate animals; as, the interradial plates of a starfish.

A genus of ophiurioid starfishes.

numerous small calcareous structures forming the skeleton of certain echinoderms, as the starfishes.

One of the numerous small hollow processes of the integument between the plates of starfishes.

the symmetrical halves of any one of the radii, or spheromeres, of a radiate animal, as a starfish.

One of a peculiar kind of spines covering the surface of certain starfishes. They are pillarlike, with a flattened summit which is covered with minute spinules or granules. See Illustration in Appendix.

A peculiar forcepslike organ which occurs in large numbers upon starfishes and echini. Those of starfishes have two movable jaws, or blades, and are usually nearly, or quite, sessile; those of echini usually have three jaws and a pedicel. See Illustration in Appendix.