Marshall Islands Starfish (Asteroidea)

This page links to many of the species of seastars we have observed in the Marshalls. The various pages show considerable intraspecific color variation, but are not really intended to be an identification guide. We welcome comments and corrections at uwkwaj@yahoo.com.

Click on a thumbnail below to bring up a page with larger photos and information about that species; for variable species, several different thumbnails may load the same page.

Acanthaster solaris	Aquilonastra anomala	Aquilonastra cepheus
Aquilonastra cepheus	Aquilonastra cepheus	Asteropsis carnifera
Asteropsis carnifera	Astropecten polyacanthus	Choriaster granulatus
Choriaster granulatus almost adult	Choriaster granulatus juvenile	Choriaster granulatus juvenile
Cistina columbiae	Culcita novaeguineae	Culcita novaeguineae juvenile
Culcita novaeguineae smooth form	Dactylosaster cylindricus	Echinaster callosus
Echinaster luzonicus	Fromia milleporella	Fromia monilis
Fromia pacifica	Fromia sp. 1	Fromia sp. 2
Fromia sp. 3	Fromia sp. 4	Gomophia egyptiaca
Leiaster cf leachi	Leiaster speciosus	Linckia guildingi
Linckia laevigata	Linckia multifora	Linckia multifora
Linckia multifora	Linckia multifora	Mithrodia clavigera
Neoferdina cumingi	Neoferdina oni	Ophidiaster cribrarius?
Ophidiaster duncani	Ophidiaster granifer	Ophidiasteridae spp.
Ophidiasteridae spp.	Ophidiasteridae spp.	Ophidiasteridae spp.
Ophidiasteridae sp. 2	Ophidiasteridae sp. 3	Ophidiasteridae sp. 4
Pentaceraster? sp.	Thromidia catalai	Valvaster striatus
Valvatida sp.	Seastar unknown juvenile?
Commensal and predatory shrimp	Zenopontonia soror	Hymenocera picta

A few starfish we have seen in other areas.

Hawaiian Islands	Pohnpei, Caroline Islands	Solomon Islands
Anilao, Philippines	Bali, Indonesia	Lembeh Strait, Indonesia
California, USA	Sea of Cortez, Mexico

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Kwajalein Underwater Home

Primary references used for species identification:

Coleman (2007)
Colin & Arneson (1995)
Gosliner et al (1996)
Humann & DeLoach (2010)
Ryanskiy (2020)
Starfish website

Many thanks to Christopher Mah and Frédéric Ducarme, whose comments have made IDs on this page much more accurate. However, since I continue to fiddle with the names, any errors are sure to be mine.