Watch helplessly from a mussel’s shell as it is slowly & inexorably consumed

By Miriam Goldstein, on September 24th, 2012 16 comments   Reviews   mussel, Predation, Sea Star, time lapse  

This may be the coolest sea star predation video of all time. Watch helplessly from the mussel’s shell as the sea star’s stomach extrudes and begins to digest the mussel alive! Via Chris Mah.

Echinoderms: Sea Star Time-lapse: Eating Mussel from Shape of Life on Vimeo.

16 comments to Watch helplessly from a mussel’s shell as it is slowly & inexorably consumed

• “Watch helplessly from a mussel’s shell as it is slowly & inexorably consumed” | Uncle John's Bathroom Reader

  September 24, 2012 at 19:08 · Reply

  [...] Awwwwwwesome: [...]

• Amos Zeeberg

  September 24, 2012 at 19:09 · Reply

  What’s up w the color change around 1:07? Changing light source, or wavelength, or something?

  • Miriam Goldstein

    September 24, 2012 at 23:16 · Reply

    I’m not an underwater videography expert, but I suspect a change in light source. Since you can see the reddish pink spots on the sea star, they’re probably using a nice bright white light source. Then they switch to the mussel-cam, and I doubt you can fit much of a light source inside that shell. :)

• missmolamola :)

  September 24, 2012 at 19:31 · Reply

  That’s so slowly dramatic! I can’t decide which organism eats mussels cooler though: sea star or the mantis shrimp. I’m so torn.

• Patric Douglas

  September 24, 2012 at 20:34 · Reply

  The Horror, The Horror!

  Nice VO by Peter Coyote as well there.

• joseph gennaro, jr.

  September 25, 2012 at 01:28 · Reply

  Sounds interesting and necessary. Too much misunderstanding going on down there.

• Sandra

  September 25, 2012 at 09:38 · Reply

  eeeeyewe. That’s awesome. I know what predator I’m going to pretend to be the next time I order mussels at a restaurant.

• Marmaduke

  September 25, 2012 at 10:58 · Reply

  That is very cool. I wonder how long they had to wait for a sea star to eat the mussel with the camera in it?

  At about 2:15 as the stomach is pulling out, there is a little shrimp-like arthropod that gets pulled into focus from the foreground. That little dude was happily swimming about in the starfish stomach acid and probably stealing nutrients. It reminds me of the critters that showed up in the deep antarctic ice a few years ago.

  • gef05

    September 26, 2012 at 17:03 · Reply

    Nicely spotted (re the arthropod). I’d missed him first time round.

• Five short clips about seastars, whales, dolphins, and jellies that blew my mind. Watch! | Seaing Blue

  September 25, 2012 at 18:06 · Reply

  [...] the top of my list of videos recommended for you, is a video I came across last night on the Deepseanews blog. A post by Miriam Goldstein highlights some AMAZING footage of seastar preying on a mussel. [...]

• Aeolius

  September 26, 2012 at 20:24 · Reply

  I cannot see the terms “slowly” and “inexorably” side-by-side without thinking of The Abominable Dr Phibes.

• Awhier

  September 28, 2012 at 16:19 · Reply

  Coolll.. wanna make vid like this hopefully..

• Watch From Inside a Mussel As It Gets Eaten by a Distended Sea Star Stomach | Smart News

  October 1, 2012 at 08:43 · Reply

  [...] you’re a mussel, this is basically your worst nightmare. A set of sea stars descend on a pier, looking for food. When they find a mussel, they go to work. [...]

• Hollywood’s Newest Star! | ZOO*3700's Blog

  October 1, 2012 at 21:25 · Reply

  [...] Here is a video showing how this process would occur from inside the mussel. [...]

• Watch This: A Starfish Digesting Its Prey, From the Dinner’s Point of View » Gocnhin Archive

  October 14, 2012 at 16:52 · Reply

  [...] [via Deep Sea News] [...]

• SoT 77: Wobble

  October 19, 2012 at 22:17 · Reply

  [...] Watch helplessly from a mussel’s shell as it is slowly & inexorably consumed [...]