This is an extreme close-up. Do you have any guesses about what type of animal it is?
The next photos show zoomed out views that might provide more clues. Hint: The phylum that this animal belongs to is known for being spiny.
Any ideas yet?
You can see lots of small rounded spines. Scattered among the spines are tiny claw-like pincers called pedicellariae. The large white spot is a special structure called a madreporite (or sieve plate).
One more view before I show the entire organism:
Okay, here you go...and the answer is:
It's a Six-armed Sea Star (Leptasterias sp.)! It was fun to photograph close-ups of this species in the field.
I mentioned a few different structures above. To learn more about the pincers or pedicellariae, check out these posts:
And if you're interested in learning about madreporites or sieve plates, you can start with these posts:
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