Brown-spotted Sand Star

Astropecten polyacanthus

Other invertebrates
IUCN: Not evaluated

Usual depth10–81 m
Water temperature10–29 °C
Best monthsFebruary, July, and October
How commonOccasional

Photo credit: (c) Kelvin Perrie, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Kelvin Perrie · CC BY · iNaturalist

About this species

Astropecten polyacanthus, the sand sifting starfish or comb sea star, is a sea star of the family Astropectinidae. It is the most widespread species in the genus Astropecten, found throughout the Indo-Pacific region. The armspread is up to 20 cm (8 in). The specific epithet "polyacanthus" comes from the Latin meaning "many thorned".

Text from the Wikipedia article “Astropecten polyacanthus”, 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: 78 records
February: 116 records
March: 96 records
April: 74 records
May: 92 records
June: 82 records
July: 101 records
August: 83 records
September: 74 records
October: 99 records
November: 62 records
December: 64 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 10–81 m · Deepest record: 582 m

0–10 m: 23 records
10–20 m: 29 records
20–30 m: 39 records
30–40 m: 38 records
40–50 m: 16 records
50–60 m: 31 records
60–70 m: 14 records
70–80 m: 8 records
80–90 m: 9 records
90–100 m: 1 records
100–110 m: 8 records
110+ m: 7 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 10–29 °C

10–12 °C: 1 records
12–14 °C: 0 records
14–16 °C: 3 records
16–18 °C: 99 records
18–20 °C: 18 records
20–22 °C: 64 records
22–24 °C: 6 records
24–26 °C: 12 records
26–28 °C: 24 records
28–30 °C: 47 records

Photos

(c) Javier, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) りなべる, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Doreen, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Saryu Mae 前朝琉, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Анна Митрошенкова, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
no rights reserved · CC0 1.0 · iNaturalist
(c) Arnim Littek, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Brown-spotted Sand Star, Comb Sea Star, Indo-Pacific Comb Star, Indo-pacific Comb Starfish, Sand Sifting Sea Star

Names in 6 more languages

Spanish: Estrella de mar arenera
French: Étoile piquante
Japanese: トゲモミジガイ
Korean: 가시불가사리
Thai: ดาวทรายหนาม
Simplified Chinese: 多棘槭海星

Other scientific names: Astropecten chinensis, Astropecten edwardsi, Astropecten ensifer, Astropecten hystrix, Astropecten samoensis

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).
691 open-data records from 1842 to 2025.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.

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