Talk:Sunflower sea star

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 25 January 2021 and 14 May 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jmarsh72.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 10:26, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 23 August 2021 and 6 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Cbm018. Peer reviewers: Ghm007, Alliekohl.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 10:26, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Started
I added what information I could gleen from natural history and parks websites to at least expand this a bit. Wildhartlivie (talk) 14:32, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

Title
The name for this species is "sunflower starfish", the term sea star is an innovation by some american aquaria, and not used in common or academic life. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.243.52.111 (talk) 22:38, 3 July 2010 (UTC)

Larval stage
I clarified the section on reproduction, to indicate that when the larvae are free-floating, that is the planktonic stage. I also made some minor grammatical changes. -KS Keturys (talk) 06:14, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

Seastar vs Sea Star
Can anyone clarify why the article is titled seastar and not sea star? NOAA refers to them as "sea stars" (http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/speciesid/fish_page/fish6a.html), and the only instance I can find of the term "seastar" as one word is here. The title and the article should should be edited to reflect proper verbage if there is not a verifiable reason for it being one word.TheDoormouse (talk) 20:40, 14 August 2017 (UTC)
 * I agree. "Sea star" is the North American term for "starfish". Meters (talk) 21:09, 14 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Do you have a source that says this? I've heard multiple explanations, so I'm curious. To my knowledge, the push for "sea star" was to properly reflect that sea stars are not fish. TheDoormouse (talk) 23:52, 14 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Whether or not that's the case is immaterial to this discussion. You are correct in your initial statement that "sea star" is two words. I'll go ahead with the move. Alex Eng ( TALK ) 01:36, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Canadian Oxford Dictionary: "sea star noun N Amer. = starfish"
 * "Seastar" is incorrect. The article should either be "sea star" or "starfish". It appears that this article was originally "starfish" but was renamed in 2012. Since it is a North American species and the common name in North America appears to be "sea star" (at least now, even if possibly not when the article was created), I agree with User:AlexEng that this should be moved to "sea star". If no-one objects and the move has not made by someone else I'll do it in a few days. Meters (talk) 02:54, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Forgot to say that why North Americans decided to use "sea star" rather than "seastar" is outside the scope of this article. Meters (talk) 02:57, 16 August 2017 (UTC)

Extinction
This seastar, which was ubiquitous on the tidelands of my youth, has disappeared completely from Puget Sound, unless a few individuals survive in very deep water. The explosion of leather stars (Dermasterias imbricata), a preferred Pycnopodia prey species, on beaches and in shallow water, is further evidence that these stars no longer exist here. As I understand it, this is one of the species driven to extinction throughout much of its former range by climate disruption (via seastar wasting disease). Seems like this deserves a paragraph of its own here. Laodah 19:06, 19 July 2018 (UTC)
 * I added a paragraph in the distribution section. Perhaps it might also deserve attention in the intro.Magic1million (talk) 22:31, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

Date of declination
the dates for the declination of the sea star are stated as 2013-2015 when most of the research I have read correlates more towards 2013-2017 would this be an appropriate change?--TobiTimothee (talk) 01:10, 24 September 2022 (UTC)

image on sunflower star page is not a sunflower star
This image is mislabeled as a sunflower star https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower_sea_star#/media/File:Olympic_Coast_National_Marine_Sanctuary_2010_Pycnopodia_helianthoides.jpg

It is featured on the main wiki page for sunflower starsand should be removed from there.

It is definitely not a sunflower star (central disk too small relative to too-slender arms; rosette array and appearance on arms not like in sunflower stars, etc).

I believe this is Rathbunaster californicus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathbunaster

Jason Hodin, Ph.D. Friday Harbor Labs of UW Friday Harbor WA USA larvador(at)uw(dot)edu 174.61.170.172 (talk) 19:28, 26 May 2023 (UTC)
 * The image is identified as a sunflower starfish by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who posted the original image that we copied. Meters (talk) 19:37, 26 May 2023 (UTC)
 * You may be correct, but we need more than an IP's say so. The image is still up on the NOAA's Flickr photo library page. We have no way of knowing that you really are who you claim to be, and I'll note that your IP is coming from the East Coast, not the West Coast. Meters (talk) 19:45, 26 May 2023 (UTC)