#parental behavior

She Gave Me A Purpose: 1 Month, 3 Weeks

Shadow’s ears twitched to someone knocking on his bed’s door.  “Shadow, you’re late again,” he could hear Jeremy say. He sighed and stuck his head out from under the covers. His room light hurt his eyes, but he could see the man’s silhouette. He pushed the covers off of himself and waited for the button to be pressed. “This is the third time I’ve opened the door,” Jeremy said as he let him…

STARFISH WITH BABIES, BROODING BEHAVIOR  REVEALED

ChrisM/ The equino blog

This motherly starfish is taking care of her starbabies. Some starfish species, such as this one Diplasterias brandti, brood and carry their babies until they are ready to leave the nest, just like some vertebrate species.

SEVERAL different species of sea stars brood. Almost all of them are either cold-water species, living in the deep-sea or at the poles. Sometimes brooding is in temperate water species.. But typically not in the tropics.

Brooding also takes different forms. The oral 'mouth' or gastric brooding mode is but one kind. Here is Diplasterias from the Antarctic!  MANY starfish in the Antarctic brood juvenile starfish!