#Dermasterias
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brackenlab.bsky.social
Salish Seastar. #Dermasterias #SeastarSaturday #MarineLife #Invertebrate 🦑🌊
An orange-and-gray, mottled seastar rests atop a bed of sea lettuce.
September 21, 2025 at 12:12 AM
mesabree.bsky.social
Throwback (while I make new art)

#ProjectAnimalia (my daily #animalart project)
75: Leather star (Dermasterias imbricata)

They feel like silk!

#sciart #medart #dailyart #sciviz #wildlifeart #scientificillustration #oceanart #illustration #seastar #invertfest
Realistic illustration of a Leather star (Dermasterias imbricata), on a white background.
June 18, 2025 at 1:05 PM
brackenlab.bsky.social
Leather stars! 🌊⭐️ 🦑🌿
A red-and-gray mottled seastar (*Dermasterias imbricata*) curls up the ends of its arms as it clings to an intertidal rocky reef. An orange-and-gray mottled seastar (*Dermasterias imbricata*) curls up the ends of its arms as it clings to an intertidal rocky reef.
June 27, 2024 at 4:36 PM
dustymcdusterson.bsky.social
Leather Star, Dermasterias imbricata found along the seashore at Sunrise Beach Park Washington State tonight just before sunset.
#SeaStar #Nature #Surf #Intertidal #SalishSea
March 1, 2026 at 3:32 AM
dustymcdusterson.bsky.social
The Leather Star, Dermasterias imbricata.
Found in typical dramatic pose while contending with a retreating tide.

#SalishSea
#SeaStar
#LeatherStar
#Intertidal

7 more cuties seen 👇
So bright and red and trippy patterned.
March 1, 2026 at 7:30 AM
echinoblog.bsky.social
A CLASSIC Pacific NW invertebrate interaction-Leather star Dermasterias provoking a sea anemone, Stomphia to detach and SWIM! youtu.be/qfKq34FAdrs?...
Cnidarians - Anemone Swims Away from Sea Star
YouTube video by Shape of Life
youtu.be
June 16, 2025 at 8:07 PM
kokolea.bsky.social
Timelapse pt. 3
This leather sea star (Dermasterias imbricata) was a darker color than I was used to seeing and it was quite large! It was rly exciting so see, I love the movements of all the tubefeet<3
(July 2024, WA)

#marinelife
December 1, 2024 at 12:58 AM
staycurious.bsky.social
We are in Tutka Bay (Kachemak Bay, AK) for this minus tide cycle. Lots of Evasterias, a dozen or so Pycnopodia, many Dermasterias (w some tiny babies!) and all the other usual suspects. We found a Giant Sea Peach (12”!), the largest I have seen. More to come today 🦑 #marinelife #seastars #intertidal
Striped sun star. Solaster. Orang w blue stripes on 10 arms Leather star. Dermasterias imbricata. Grey blue w mottled orange on pudgy surface w 5 stubby arms Inverted Pycnopodia (Sunflower seastar) shoing off hundreds of tube feet as it clings to underside of a rock. Painted or Rainbow seastar. Bright red/pink w many white spikes on 5 arms. Orthasterias koehler.
April 29, 2025 at 4:09 PM
echinoblog.bsky.social
PAPULAE! I am often asked about the "fuzz" seen on sea stars that are fat and happy. When comfortable they extend their "gills" into the water in order to "breathe" Here we see the many pores of Dermasterias, a leather star #seastarSaturday www.inaturalist.org/observations...
Leather Star (Dermasterias imbricata)
Leather Star from Oak Bay, BC, Canada on January 30, 2026 at 08:58 PM by Charles Van Arsdall. is this how they normally look or is this a disease?
www.inaturalist.org
May 2, 2026 at 3:34 PM
birb.mom
I love Dermasterias. Not only do they smell like garlic, but you can also find commensal polychaetes in amongst the tube feet in like 25% of them
June 16, 2025 at 8:30 PM
staycurious.bsky.social
Here's a few from Tutka Bay, Alaska! I love minus tides that reveal so many seastars! These are mostly Ochre stars (Pisaster ochraceous) but there is one Leather Seastar (Dermasterias impricata) 🦑
Dozens of orange and maroon Ochre Seastars on rocky cliff, also a lone leather seastar in bottom left corner
November 21, 2024 at 11:37 PM
dustymcdusterson.bsky.social
A #Sculpin temporarily taking shelter under a #LeatherStar, Dermasterias imbricata, along the #HoodCanal shoreline.

Seen after midnight, last night just below the -3.9ft #KingTide low tideline in 1-3 inches of water, near oyster beds with ample freshwater input. #TwanohStatePark #LowTide
November 10, 2025 at 2:59 AM
echinoblog.bsky.social
OH NEAT! A Leather star attacking a brachiopod! British Columbia Sea stars attacking and causing brachiopod extinction was a brief topic of contention in the 90s! #seastarsaturday www.inaturalist.org/observations...
Leather Star (Dermasterias imbricata)
Leather Star from Skaikos Point, Sechelt Inlet, BC, Canada on November 15, 2019 at 02:12 PM by Neil McDaniel. Attacking a brachiopod, Terebratalia transversa.
www.inaturalist.org
May 2, 2026 at 3:24 PM
biodiversitypix.bsky.social
⭐️ Harriman Alaska series
Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1910-1914.

[Source]
Historical scientific illustration from the Harriman Alaska series (1910-1914) showing detailed black-and-white drawings of starfish and related species. Various anatomical parts, such as skeletal plates, spines, and arm structures, are depicted with magnification scales ranging from 5x to 16x. Each section is labeled with numbers and letters. The illustration focuses on the morphology of different starfish types identified at the bottom, including Bunodaster ritteri, Dermasterias imbricata, Solaster stimpsoni, Pteraster tesselatus, Henricia sanguinolenta, and H. tumida borealis. The overall layout is scientific and precise, aiding in the study of starfish anatomy and classification.
June 21, 2026 at 2:23 PM
samanthamcbeth.bsky.social
It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this.
Leather Sea Star (Dermasterias imbricata) in the palm of my hand
November 14, 2024 at 6:52 AM
dustymcdusterson.bsky.social
A smattering of supple sprawled-out #sunbathing #LeatherStars (Dermasterias imbricata) found this weekend at Sunrise Beach Park in Gig Harbor Washington.

I'm unsure if it makes a difference, but I did move the ones I found higher up in the #intertidal area back to the water.
#Nature #ALTText
I left this one in place. It was in the lowest intertidal area where there are permanent seagrasses and seaweed. They were only exposed for a matter of 10s of minutes. Look at those arm curls with the tube feet reaching out! This one just looked so relaxed, but maybe was more just finally accepting its fate. Not to worry, I did move this still alive and supple starfish to the water. Another flatter starfish just sprawled out. I imagine them stretching and curling their top-left arm in a restful spasm. This pair, who I anthropomorphized into an adult with their young child. Even though it was a warm day this is giving me playing in snow sort of vibes. Can starfish make sand-Angles?
September 21, 2025 at 3:10 PM
calacademy.bsky.social
Take advantage of low tides and make @inaturalist.bsky.social observations of reliable ochre stars, spindly blood stars, and many-armed sunflower stars—if you’re lucky.
A magazine-style page titled ‘Ochre Star (Pisaster ochraceous), shows cutouts of the sea star with text describing the species. Text reads: “RANGE: Alaska to Santa Barbara County; SIZE: 4-10 in.; APPEARANCE: Comes in many colors (purple, orange, brown, yellow) and has a hard exterior covered in small spines (ossicles); FUN FACT: Ochre stars are ‘keystone species’ used by scientists to measure the health of tide pool ecosystems.” The star is described as “old reliable” because they are very common and a reliable find in CA tide pools. A magazine-style page titled ‘Leather Star (Dermasterias imbricata), shows cutouts of the sea star with text describing the species. Text reads: “RANGE: Southern Alaska to northern Mexico; SIZE: Up to 12 in. diameter; APPEARANCE: Reddish orange with grey-blue splotches, soft and mucous skin with no spines; ABUNDANCE: Very common, particularly in summer breeding season.” Bottom text describes this species as “Stinkiest star alive,” because it emits a strange smell resembling garlic or gunpowder, caused by a defensive mucus it produces on its skin. A magazine-style page titled ‘Bat Star (Patiria miniata), shows cutouts of the sea star with text describing the species. Text reads: “RANGE: Sitka, Alaska to Baja California; SIZE: Up to 12 in. diameter; APPEARANCE: Comes in many colors, most commonly orange or red. Usually has five arms but can have up to nine; ABUNDANCE: Common, especially in summer & winter and among kelp forests.” Bottom text header says “Holy Batman!” because this star was given its common name from the distinct webbing between its arms, resembling bat wings.
November 24, 2025 at 6:03 PM
brackenlab.bsky.social
Little lurking leather Star! #Dermasterias 🌊 ⭐️
November 14, 2024 at 10:16 AM
brackenlab.bsky.social
Leather star acrobatics ⭐️🤸‍♂️ #Dermasterias #SitkaNSF
November 14, 2024 at 10:02 AM
jonpuritz.marineevoeco.com
This weekend was my first time to the CA intertidal since sea star wasting disease. Unreal! A near absence of Pisaster & Dermasterias.
November 17, 2024 at 4:37 AM
ncccnc.bsky.social
#DYK : Si les étoiles de mer perdent un membre, il leur suffit d'en faire pousser un nouveau! La dermasterias imbricata, fait face à de nombreux prédateurs comme le goéland et la loutre de mer. Puisqu'ils n'en consomment qu'une partie, elle peut se régénérer! ⭐
August 10, 2025 at 4:15 PM