Starfish, crown of thorns, and sea stars live throughout the subtropics and tropics. They are bottom dwellers, so any contact with a diver is accidental. Injury occurs from the spine and the venom ...

In waters off the coast of Indonesia, a diver injects a crown-of-thorns sea star with a toxin. Photograph courtesy Nature Picture Library, Alamy Stock Photo Instead, divers manually inject them ...

Research into one of the most persistent coral predators on the Great Barrier Reef has revealed a troubling paradox in reef ecosystems: the crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) appears to thrive in the ...

Researchers have uncovered an under-the-sea phenomenon where coral-destroying crown-of-thorns starfish larvae have been feasting on blue-green algae bacteria known as "sea sawdust." The team of ...

Crown-of-thorns starfish have been reproducing at high levels, causing trouble for coral reefs surrounding Guam, so the more information about them, the better for the island to combat them ...

Jess Thomson is a Newsweek Science Reporter based in London UK. Her focus is reporting on science, technology and healthcare. She has covered weird animal behavior, space news and the impacts of ...

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources calls the crown-of-thorns starfish infestation in Sarangani Bay as one of the worst to hit the country GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines ...

The island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands is experiencing an outbreak of crown-of-thorns-starfish (taramea, Acanthaster planci), which could jeopardize the survival of its surrounding coral reef.

But, according to Australian scientists, it could also encourage the proliferation of crown-of-thorns starfish, which are predators of coral reefs and highly resistant to marine heatwaves.

Research that shows juvenile starfish can lurk harmlessly for more than six years could force a rethink on the crown of thorns culling methods used to protect corals on the Great Barrier Reef.

The degraded reef framework explains how the loss of live coral, which crown-of-thorns starfish feed off, paradoxically benefits juvenile COTS. As live coral diminishes, these starfish accumulate ...