We are now at the final 2 part of the amazing starfish. We left the most amazing part of their story for last. Truthfully, there’s much, much more to be discussed about each aspect that we have already written about, but that would mean getting into very detailed scientific information which would be a bit above our heads and specifically, it would get pretty boring. But, suffice it to say that Hashem’s wisdom that He puts into every one of His creature’s is absolutely astounding.
The first amazing thing, that as of today, NO OTHER CREATURE in the world has this function, is the way starfish eat. Their mouths are quite small (only about a quarter of an inch wide) and it lies flat at the center of the bottom of the starfish. However, it gets its food in the amazing way by sending its stomach out of its mouth onto the prey to eat its food. To understand how it works you need to know that there’s two stomachs in a starfish. There’s the cardiac stomach and on top of it is the pyloric stomach. First, we will discuss the cardiac stomach. Hashem made it that starfish likes to eat the soft insides of shells like clams, and oysters. When the starfish reaches its prey (food), the clam, there’s a problem. The clams have special muscles with which they are able to keep their shells shut together very tight. So, here’s the first part of what happens. First, the tube feet of the starfish shuffle over the opening of the clam as close as possible to its mouth. Then the tube feet surround the two sides of the clam by its opening. (See below picture.) It then applies tremendous pressure to pull apart the clam. It always outlasts the clam in this dual of muscle strength, and eventually the muscles of the clam get tired first, so the clam opens up a little bit. It doesn’t need to open up all the way, and that might be too much for the starfish to be able to accomplish, but it doesn’t need much of an opening. The stomach of the starfish then leaves the starfishes body and slowly crawls to the inside of the clam!! NO OTHER CREATURE KNOWN TO MAN SENDS ITS STOMACH OUT OF ITS BODY TO EAT OUTSIDE OF ITS BODY! (See the pictures.) The stomach looks a bit like the white of a raw egg. It feels something like that as well. Special neuropeptides send chemical signals that cause the stomach muscles to contract and thereby they are able to first crawl out of their small stomach hole and then enter the clam’s body. The stomach then surrounds the soft insides of the clam and then excretes very powerful digestive enzymes which liquify the clam’s insides. Once it’s liquified, the stomach surrounds the liquid and then it brings it out of the clam back to the inside of its mouth. There are special retractor muscles inside the starfish that are attached to the cardiac stomach for this purpose of pulling it back in once the food has been digested. (How it knows when it is finished with the digestion, I don’t know. No one explains it. Just another mystery that we don’t really know how it works.) (In passing, once we understand how the stomach works, we can now understand (as we mentioned in a previous article) how when a pedicellaria uses its plier like grip to catch small prey anywhere on the surface of the starfish, the starfish can eat it. Since the stomach can come out, so it can digest whatever food that the pedicellaria has caught!) As the stomach re-enters its body through its mouth it sends the liquified food to the pyloric stomach through cilia action. From the pyloric stomach it is send down the arms (also through cilia action). Each arm has two extensions called pyloric caeca. In these structures are the final digestive enzymes that absorb the nutrients from the liquid food that the pyloric stomach sends them. From there the nutrients are sent to the appropriate places where they are needed. Most movement of anything in the starfish takes place by the amazing cilia hairs that are all over the starfish, inside of it and outside of it. There’s obviously much more to all this, but again, this is just a simplified version of what happens.
Here’s the stomach starting to come out of its stomach.
The clam is being moved by the tube feet of a large starfish – you can see that it has many arms – and the stomach is coming out to squeeze into the small opening the tube feet made by pulling it apart.
And now for the final amazing feat that also no other creature on the planet can do! We know that there are a number of creatures that can regenerate (like rebuild) parts of their bodies. We know there are many lizards that can actually release their tail when a predator attacks them, giving the predator something to be happy with, and the rest of the lizard runs away. The ability to detach a limb from a body at will is called Autotomy. (We will explain how this works soon.) Then they regenerate the lost limb over time. By many other animals, even though they can’t just release parts of their body at will, nevertheless, if parts of their bodies are eaten or pulled off, they can regenerate those missing or mutilated limbs. However, there’s NO OTHER CREATURE THAT FROM JUST ONE ARM THAT WAS PULLED OFF, OR WAS DROPPED OFF AT WILL, CAN REGROW AN ENTIRE NEW STARFISH BODY!! (-It usually needs a small amount of the center of the starfish to be attached to it as well, for it to successfully be able to regrow an entire new starfish.) The basic idea of how it works is as follows. There are “strategically” positioned muscles near the base of the arm of the starfish. (That’s where the arm comes out of the central body of the starfish.) On top of these areas is the part of the skeleton of the starfish. The full skeleton is made of interconnected calcium plates. They are held together by connective tissues and muscular fiber (which is how it remains so flexible) and the entire skeleton is covered over by a thin skin. Muscles within the arm contract, which causes them to bulge higher. (When you flex/contract your muscles, the muscle goes up higher, right?) So, the bulging muscle exerts force against prearranged weak points that are strategically placed over these areas by the base of the arms, so that they can easily break off when necessary. The contraction of the muscles at those points causes the skeleton to break. As it breaks, it also tears the surrounding tissues and the skin around it. That allows the arm to just fall off by itself. This process happens very quickly! (Gee, I wonder how an accident got all this figured out??) This can be done to keep a predator happy with just a small meal, (one arm) or it can be a way to increase the numbers of starfish in the water. So, that’s basically how Autotomy works in the creatures that can do it. Now, how the starfish is able to regrow an entirely new starfish from one arm is obviously beyond the scope of this article. It’s OBVIOUSLY AN EXTREMELY COMPLICATED PROCESS AND AN OPEN MIRACLE. To close up the open wounds and then start the rebuilding process there are special cells called blastemal cells. They help close the wound and then regenerate the needed new skeleton, nerves, muscles, and tissues cells, in order to regrow the starfish. This all happens without the starfish even having a brain!! Are these accidents? I don’t think so!!!!! How great are your works HASHEM!!
Drawing of the skeleton of starfish made of separate plates of bone like structures, held together by muscles that can tear with pressure being applied by the contracted muscles underneath them.
About the Author
Rabbi Shmuel Waldman, a respected educator and spiritual leader, has spent over five decades immersed in the study and teaching of Judaism. Deeply influenced by Rabbi Avigdor Miller ZTL and close to Rav Don Segal, shlit”a, Rabbi Waldman began his educational journey at Mirrer Yeshiva, later becoming the Mashgiach at Yeshiva Mercaz Hatorah of Belle Harbor. His work with students inspired his book Beyond A Reasonable Doubt: Convincing Evidence to the Truths of Judaism, which has become a cornerstone in the field of kiruv and has sold tens of thousands of copies. Rabbi Waldman’s teaching career includes years spent at Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe and his impactful work in Jewish summer camps. More recently, he has been working on a Sefer dedicated to the power of prayer, and has launched a blog and YouTube channel focused on Intelligent Design and refuting the Theory of Evolution. Through his writings and teachings, Rabbi Waldman continues to shape and influence Jewish thought and practice.