{"id":108157,"date":"2026-06-14T14:12:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T08:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=108157"},"modified":"2026-06-14T17:22:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T11:52:28","slug":"chocolate-chip-sea-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/chocolate-chip-sea-star\/","title":{"rendered":"Chocolate Chip Sea Star"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Chocolate Chip Sea Star Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists recently discovered a remarkable light-transmitting skeletal structure at the tips of the arms of the chocolate-chip sea star, which channels about 70% of incident light and concentrates it nearly threefold at its base. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Chocolate Chip Sea Star<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chocolate Chip Sea Star, also known as the <\/span><b>horned sea star<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, is a species of highly recognizable<\/span><b> ornamental sea star.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientific Name: Protoreaster nodosus<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Chocolate Chip Sea Star <\/b><b>Habitat and Distribution<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are found in the <\/span><b>warm, shallow waters<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the <\/span><b>Indo-Pacific region<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, including the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the western Pacific Ocean.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They inhabit<\/span><b><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/coral-reefs\/\" target=\"_blank\"> coral reefs<\/a>, sandy lagoons, and seagrass beds<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, typically at depths of up to 30 meters.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Chocolate Chip Sea Star <\/b><b>Features<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These sea stars can grow up to 12 inches in diameter.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They have a <\/span><b>creamy white base <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>dark brown projections, resembling chocolate chips.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Often <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">they are<strong> t<\/strong><\/span><b>an-colored, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">but they can be <\/span><b>other shades as well.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like all sea stars, these guys can <\/span><b>regenerate lost body parts.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>When threatened,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> they can <\/span><b>lose one of their five limbs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (a process known as autotomy) to escape predators, and the lost limb may regenerate over time.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are <\/span><b>carnivores <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and typically feed on detritus, small invertebrates, and even the soft tissue of corals.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Chocolate Chip Sea Star <\/b><b>Recent Findings<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>On the tip of each arm,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a skeletal part contains<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">an <\/span><b>array of cone-shaped structures <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that, like optic fibres, <\/span><b>transmit 70% of incident light <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>concentrate it nearly 3x at the base.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Overall, the array <\/span><b>captures light from a 120\u00b0 field of view<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>\u2018brightens\u2019 it 8x inside the arm.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists said engineers could use the design for lightweight sensors and displays.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Key Facts about Sea Stars<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although sea stars are often called \u201c<\/span><b>starfish<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u201d they\u2019re <\/span><b>not related to fish.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are <\/span><b>invertebrates <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">related to sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and sand dollars, which are all <\/span><b>echinoderms<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>\u2018\u2019Echinoderm\u2019\u2019 means spiny skin<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014a reference to their <\/span><b>hard, calcified skin<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which helps to protect them from predators.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They have <\/span><b>radial symmetry<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>tube feet that help them move using water pressure.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are close to <\/span><b>2,000 species <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of sea stars in the world\u2019s oceans. <\/span><b>Most species<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have <\/span><b>five arms<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but <\/span><b>some have many more\u2014even as many as 40.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are<\/span><b> often found under rocks or in crevice<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s. <\/span><b>Their mouth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, on the <\/span><b>underside of their body<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, has <\/span><b>no teeth.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When feeding, <\/span><b>sea stars wrap their arms around their prey and push their stomach out of their mouth to eat<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> their food.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They\u2019re <\/span><b>toxic to some predators,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> but if captured, sea stars can drop an arm to try to escape.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They can <\/span><b>regrow lost arms<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014and <\/span><b>even an entire new body<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from a single arm and part of the central disc of their body.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/ccidist-ws\/th\/th_delhi\/issues\/189264\/OPS\/GDHG42BAV.1+GT2G443MO.1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chocolate Chip Sea Star (Protoreaster nodosus) is a horned sea star found in shallow Indo-Pacific coral reefs, lagoons, and seagrass beds. Read more about Chocolate Chip Sea Star, Habitat, Distribution, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":108198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8129,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-108157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-chocolate-chip-sea-star","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108157"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108199,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108157\/revisions\/108199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}