|Science Museum of Virginia sea stars| Strange creatures are our
sea stars; they have no blood, no brains, and if we chop them
up, as long as there is a fifth left, they will grow everything
back. As for the no brains thing, anyone who has seen “SpongeBob
SquarePants” can attest that Patrick Star, SpongeBob’s best
friend, is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Comedy is not
the only reason Patrick is a little slow on the uptake. The
creator of SpongeBob, Stephen Hillenburg, taught marine biology
at Orange County Ocean Institute in California and puts weird
facts like that into the story and characters. Sea stars
actually have something going on upstairs, but it’s just a nerve
ring instead of a brain. Breathing is another thing that our
dear sea stars don’t do like most of the creatures we come in
contact with. They absorb sea water through a small dot normally
located somewhere on the top facing side of the sea star; this
is called a madreporite. The water they absorb is used in their
circulatory system (ye