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Are starfish poisonous?
Most starfish are non-toxic, but a few kinds of starfish are poisonous.

The body is flat, mostly symmetrical with five spokes, and the boundary between the body disk and the wrist is not obvious. Live with your mouth down and your mouth up. There is a stepped groove on the ventral side of the stomach, and the tube foot extends out of the groove. The bone plate of endoskeleton is connected by connective tissue and flexible and elastic.

These kinds of starfish have some spikes on their surfaces, which will release toxic mucus. Different kinds of starfish have different toxicity. Generally speaking, brightly colored starfish are toxic. The brighter the color, the more toxic it is.

Environmental value

The Leibniz Institute of Oceanography in Germany issued a communique saying that the latest research found that echinoderms such as starfish play an important role in the marine carbon cycle, and they can directly absorb carbon from seawater in the process of forming exoskeletons.

Echinoderms are invertebrates living on the seabed, which are divided into five categories: starfish, sea urchins, snakes, sea cucumbers and sea lilies, and their figures cover all oceans. It is found that echinoderms absorb carbon from seawater and form exoskeletons in the form of inorganic salts (such as calcium carbonate). After their death, most of the carbon-containing substances in their bodies will remain on the seabed, thus reducing the carbon that enters the atmosphere from the ocean. In this way, echinoderms absorb about 654.38 billion tons of carbon every year.

It was previously known that after the greenhouse gases produced by burning fossil fuels enter the ocean, the acidity of seawater will rise, which will harm coral reefs and shellfish. This time, the researchers found that acidic seawater is also very harmful to echinoderms, making it impossible for such creatures to form a solid calcium-containing exoskeleton.