Have you seen this starfish? Wanted alive and in colour!

The iconic seastar Linckia laevigata is the ‘poster child’ for tropical reefs in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It occurs as a variety of colours including yellow, orange, grey and purple but is best known for its royal-blue colour (hence its easy-to-remember-but-not-quite-accurate common name!).

We are interested in determining whether colour is genetically controlled and whether colour and habitat are related. In order to undertake such a study, we need to examine a large number of specimens, but specimens that have been removed from the sea, lose their colour. This means we can only do this study using photos and we need lots of them!

You can contribute to this study by taking photos of Linckia laevigata and uploading them to our iNaturalist Project. Please include a photo of both surfaces of the starfish (which can be different colours) if possible and record the location, depth and water temperature if you know them. Photos of one side and location are still helpful, but the extra information will make the record more useful for our study. less ↑