A necklace sea star nestles among the C-shaped emerald tentacles of anchor coral in the western Pacific Ocean.
An ochre sea star (background) shares a kelp-strewn beach with a bright-red cousin at low tide on Washington's Tongue Point.
A sea star with vibrant purple coloring rests on an ocean floor
The white dorsal plates of this sea star, photographed in the western Pacific Ocean, give it a calico pattern that helps it blend with its rocky surroundings.
A small crab skitters across a brilliantly colored blue sea star in the western Pacific Ocean.
Ochre sea stars, like this pair in Burnaby Narrows on the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia, are normally purple but can adapt a wide variety of colors depending on inpidual habitat.
A necklace sea star rests on a reef in the Solomon Islands. Subspecies of this striking sea star are identified by differences in the plates that cover their dorsal side.
The pattern on this Indonesian sea star echoes the batik prints the Southeast Asian archipelago is known for.
A close-up of a Nardoa frianti sea star in Sulawesi, Indonesia, shows this species' highly contoured dorsal side.