Common Sea Star

About this species

Archaster typicus is a species of starfish in the family Archasteridae. It is commonly known as the sand star or the sand sifting star but these names are also applied to starfish in the genus Astropecten. It is found in shallow waters in the Indo-Pacific region.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Archaster typicus”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 80 records
February: 91 records
March: 134 records
April: 175 records
May: 134 records
June: 169 records
July: 171 records
August: 171 records
September: 130 records
October: 74 records
November: 90 records
December: 144 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 0–8 m · Deepest record: 67.7 m

0–10 m: 45 records
10–20 m: 3 records
20–30 m: 0 records
30–40 m: 0 records
40–50 m: 0 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 23–30 °C

22–24 °C: 1 records
24–26 °C: 16 records
26–28 °C: 78 records
28–30 °C: 87 records

Photos

(c) Kelly Thomas Brown, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) naturewatchwidow, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) L.J. Lamera, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Michael Meiring, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) portioid, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Matt B, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Sam Bellamy, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Common Sea Star, Indo-pacific Beach Star, Indo-Pacific Sand Star, Sand Sifting Star, Sand Star

Names in 4 more languages

French: Étoile fouisseuse
Japanese: カスリモミジガイ
Thai: ดาวทราย
Simplified Chinese: 飛白楓海星

Other scientific names: Archaster nicobaricus, Astropecten stellaris

Similar species

Archaster angulatus

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
360 open-data records from 1840 to 2024.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.