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i thought it was lobsters
It's hard to comprehend the destruction this ethereal creature could do in its lifetime — a juvenile crown-of-thorns starfish, raised in a lab where researchers have discovered worrying new findings about its progression into adulthood.
Research published today from the University of Sydney and Southern Cross University's National Marine Science Centre in Coffs Harbour has found the crown-of-thorns starfish will eat a much more varied diet as juveniles than previously thought, making them worryingly resilient.
As juveniles the crown-of-thorns starfish are vegetarian, favouring a particular type of algae.
But the study found they they would eat much more in order to survive.
"We initially thought that they only ate crustose coralline algae but we found that they can also eat biofilm, which is a mixture of diatoms, bacteria, and other microorganisms that grow pretty much everywhere in the ocean," Dr Mos said.
The findings offer a significant change in thought on the life cycle of the crown-of-thorns starfish, and raises the spectre of it being a much more dangerous predator.
Journal Reference:
Dione J. Deaker, Benjamin Mos, Huang-An Lin, et al. Diet flexibility and growth of the early herbivorous juvenile crown-of-thorns sea star, implications for its boom-bust population dynamics, PLOS ONE (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236142)
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday July 25 2020, @10:22PM (3 children)
These days lobsters are for the rich. But go back a few decades and they were the crawfish of the sea, and mainly eaten by the poor. (OTOH, Jack London was a lobster pot pirate, so you might need to go back before the middle 1800's.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 26 2020, @02:31AM (1 child)
They're OK, but overrated, I feel. Shrimp taste better, and king crab is even meatier and more delicious than lobster.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday July 26 2020, @12:49PM
I will never know what they find in caviar.
I considered it a vile tasting substance, I would probably starve it its all I had to eat.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by zoward on Sunday July 26 2020, @09:33AM
In the US colonial days, lobsters were considered repulsive and often fed to prisoners.