Dr. Christopher Mah is one of the world's experts in the evolution and biology of the Asteroidea aka starfishes or sea stars. His research has taken him to Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, and the Aleutian Islands where he has participated in numerous deep-sea cruises. His research includes deep-sea submersible dives in the Hawaiian Islands, off the Bahamas, and the Gorda Ridge in the North Pacific Ocean. Dr. Mah has described nearly 70 new species of starfish and authored numerous papers on starfish diversity and evolution. Dr. Mah is originally from San Francisco, received his PhD from the University of Illinois and has been a researcher in the Smithsonian Institution Department of Invertebrate Zoology since 2005. He writes the Echinoblog, a blog which specializes in the Echinodermata, which includes sea stars, sea urchins, brittle stars, sea cucumbers, feather stars and other spiny skinned animals.
Many people generally think of sea stars as slow, almost immobile animals, living in tidepools or in along the shoreline, feeding slowly on clams and mussels. So here’s something you...
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