Tasmanian Live-Bearing Seastar

Parvulastra vivipara

• Group: Other
• For divers: safe
• IUCN status: CR

This tiny Tasmanian seastar broods its young inside its body and releases them as fully formed miniatures, skipping the drifting larval stage entirely. That keeps each population locked to its own patch of upper intertidal rock, which leaves it Critically Endangered with almost no way to spread.

Taxonomy: Animalia › Echinodermata › Asteroidea › Valvatida › Asterinidae › Parvulastra

Species data via the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), AphiaID 459558.