A new speies of starfish has been discovered in Japan, marking the first such discovery in over 50 years.:-Researchers in Japan have found a new type of starfish. This was possible because scientists, fishers, and aquarium and museum staff all worked together.
The new starfish has been named Paragonaster hoeimaruae and is in the family Pseudarchasteridae. It has five arms and a unique red and beige color scheme. It is just over 10 cm long.
The experts say that this finding shows how important it is to work together to learn more about oceanic biodiversity.
Did you know that starfish are not really fish? Even though they have that name, they are more like spiky sea urchins and squishy sea cucumbers.
If you find them on a sandy beach, they might look weak and gentle, but they are actually dangerous predators that can have up to 50 arms, a meter-long bodies, and live for decades.
Starfish Facts and Importance
Starfish come in about 2,000 different types. The University of Tokyo, the Enoshima Aquarium, the Marine Science Museum, Fukushima Prefecture, and the Yamaguchi Prefectural Fisheries Research Center in Japan worked together to find a new species near the shores of the country.
The new species is a starfish from the Pseudarchasteridae family. Up until now, only four species of the Pseudarchasteridae family had been seen in Japanese waters. These species belong to two genera, which are biological groups that are used to identify animals.
Discovering Paragonaster hoeimaruae
“The starfish, which we have now named Paragonaster hoeimaruae, was found in Sagami Bay, south of Tokyo, off the coast of the Izu Peninsula.” “We also found another one in the Sea of Japan, northwest of Yamaguchi Prefecture in southwestern Japan,” said Itaru Kobayashi,
The lead researcher from the University of Tokyo’s Misaki Marine Biological Station. “They were caught between 150 and 350 meters deep. Their bodies are well-shaped and have five arms. They are a beautiful red color on top and beige color below.”
Between 2021 and 2023, the team collected different species from all over Japan. They came from shrimp and crab cages used by fishermen in Hokkaido and Shizuoka prefectures, which are in the north and center of Japan, respectively, as well as beam trawl studies.
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In which a big net is dragged across the ocean floor by a ship from Yamaguchi prefectural fisheries research. The name “hoei” comes from the fishing boat “Hoei-maru,” which found the species in the first place.
The team also took pictures of other starfish in places where they had not been seen before. Gephyreaster swifti, a starfish that was about 30 centimeters across and surprisingly big, was found off the north coast of Hokkaido.
Before, it had only been seen along the west coast of the United States and Canada in the Pacific Ocean, as well as on islands in the Bering Sea to the north.
Significance of the Findings
“Japan is home to about 250 different kinds of starfish, so we were shocked that this huge one had been missed.” “Our research shows that people still do not realize how many species live in Japanese waters,” Kobayashi said.
Fishermen, aquariums, universities, and other research groups need to work together to learn more about our oceans and marine life. These exciting discoveries show how important it is to do so.”
A paper by Itaru Kobayashi, Takayuki Sonoyama, Mai Hibino, Mitsuhisa Kawano, and Hisanori Kohtsuka in the Journal of Natural History on August 2, 2024, describes a new species of pseudoarchasteridae (Asteroidea: Paxillosida) found in Japanese seas. The paper also describes the range expansion of three species.
