Leather Star, Dermasterias imbricata
Leather Star, Dermasterias Imbricata. Underwater photograph taken in the coastal waters off Monterey, California, February 2022. Photograph and identification courtesy of Bob Hillis, Ivins, Utah.
Phylogeny: The Leather Star, Dermasterias imbricata (Grube, 1857), is a member of the Asteropseidae Family of Starfish. Dermasterias is one of five genera in the Asteropseidae family, and is the only member of the Demasterias genus. The Leather Star is also known as the Garlic Sea Star and in Mexico as Estrella de Mar de Piel. The genus name Dermasterias comes from the Greek words meaning “skin star.” The species name imbricata comes from the Latin, meaning “overlapping like roof tiles.” Both of these names refer to the smooth overlapping skin texture that makes these stars feel like wet leather.
Morphology: The Leather Star has a disk that is almost as wide as the arms are long. The arms are wide, short, and tapering. They are gray to bluish gray in color, with numerous orange or red blotches covering the entire dorsal surface. They do not have marginal plates, spines, or pedicellariae and are fairly soft and pliable. The skin has a slippery and leathery texture. They reach a maximum of 30 cm (12 inches) in diameter. These stars have an odor resembling garlic, burnt gunpowder, or sulphur.
Habitat and Distribution: Leather Stars are usually found attached to rocks but are occasionally found on sand or mud. They prefer areas that are somewhat protected from wave action. They live in the lower intertidal zone to depths up to 91 m (300 feet). They are a temperate to subtropical Eastern Pacific species The Leather Star has a limited distribution in Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean being found from the Sacramento Reef, Ensenada, Baja California northward along the northwest coast of the Baja Peninsula.
Diet: Leather Stars primarily consume sea anemones, algae, bryozoans, sea cucumbers, sea pens, other sea stars, sea urchins, sponges and colonial tunicates.
Predators: Leather Stars are preyed upon by other sea stars, especially sun stars.
Reproduction: Leather Stars can reproduce asexually, through regeneration or clonal reproduction, or sexually. Leather stars are gonochoristic (male or female for life). They are broadcast spawners, releasing clouds of sperm and eggs into the water column where fertilization occurs. The developing eggs and their resulting larvae are initially planktonic before settling to the bottom. They under go several larval stages. Spawning usually takes place at night, during the spring and summer months.
Ecosystem Interactions: Leather Stars are known to host ectoparastic barnacles and may shelter scale worms in their ambulacral grooves.
Human Interactions: Leather Stars have no significant direct impact on human activities. From a conservation perspective the Leather Star has not been formally evaluated.
Synonyms: Asteropsis imbricata, Dermasterias inermis, and Gymnasterias inermis.