Star's five-legged coordination

摘要

Brittle stars use their five limbs to crawl along the sea floor in a bilateral manner, even though their bodies have radial, not bilateral, symmetry.Henry Astley at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, measured the movements of 13 Ophiocoma echinata brittle stars (pictured). He found that the creatures coordinate their limb movements, rather than having each leg react independently to stimuli.