While the cartoon starfish Patrick Star from "SpongeBob Squarepants" is famously stupid, his real-life counterpart in science may in fact be all head. This at least is the conclusion of a landmark ...

Despite what it looks like, researchers found recently that starfish don’t have limbs that are hugging the surface they touch — the characteristic starfish is actually mostly “just a head.” What did ...

For many creatures, having a limb caught in a predator’s mouth is usually a death sentence. Not starfish, though—they can detach the limb and leave the predator something to chew on while they crawl ...

Using genetics-based methods, a multinational team of scientists said in a study published this week in the journal Nature that starfish are all head and no torso. Starfish larvae, like those of most ...

It sounds like a children's game or an absurd question: Where is the starfish's head? In reality, the enigma has been occupying specialists for over a century, given the unusual structure of the ...

Jaymi Heimbuch is a writer and photographer specializing in wildlife conservation, technology, and food. She is the author of "The Ethiopian Wolf: Hope at the Edge of Extinction." Starfish. Also known ...