Trophodiscus almus
species of echinoderm
Trophodiscus almus is a species of starfish in the family Astropectinidae. It is found in fairly deep waters in the Sea of Okhotsk, the Sea of Japan and around the Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is very unusual among starfish in that it broods its young on its upper surface. Its common name in Japanese is "Komochi-momiji".
Description
Trophodiscus almus is a five-armed pentagonal starfish growing to a diameter of about 33 mm (1.3 in). It has a wide disc and short, bluntly pointed arms. The aboral (upper) surface is slightly convex and is covered in paxillae, umbrella-shaped structures with spiny margins. The paxillae are larger near the inter-arm areas and smaller at the centre of the disc and near the arm-tips. The madreporite is about halfway from the centre of the disc to the margin, the anus is small, and there are respiratory structures known as papulae between and concealed by the paxillae. A notable feature are the 13 to 20 large calcareous plates, wider than they are long, that extend around the margins of each arm.
The public source identifies “Trophodiscus almus” as species of echinoderm. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Trophodiscus, almus and species.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2633457. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Trophodiscus almus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.