Biodiversity & Conservation

Rosy feather-star - Antedon bifida

Antedon bifida

Image Keith Hiscock - Antedon bifida at Firestone Bay in Plymouth Sound.
Image copyright information

  • #
  • #
  • #
  • #
  • #
  • #
  • #
  • #
  • #
Distribution map

Antedon bifida recorded (dark blue bullet) and expected (light blue bullet) distribution in Britain and Ireland (see below)

Why do the maps differ?

Sightings Have you seen Antedon bifida?
If so please submit your record.

Antedon bifida is not listed under any importance categories.

Taxonomy icon Taxonomy Taxon English term
Phylum Echinodermata Starfish, brittlestars, sea urchins & sea cucumbers
Class Crinoidea Feather stars and sea lilies
Authority (Pennant, 1777)
Recent synonyms None
Map icon Recorded Distribution in Britain and Ireland Antedon bifida is found around most of Britain and Ireland but is apparently absent from the southern part of the east coast of England.
Habitat information icon Habitat information Antedon bifida is found from the shallow sublittoral to depths of 450 m but is most abundant between 15 and 40 m (La Touche, 1978). It is occasionally observed at the level of the lowest spring tides. It is free-moving but is usually found clinging by its cirri to the walls of gullies and on seaweeds in areas of fast flowing water currents.
Text page icon Description A feather-star with five pairs of feathery arms, 5-10 cm in length. The species is secured to the substratum by movable, claw-like cirri, up to about 25, on the undersurface of the disc. The animal is thus able to crawl, often quite swiftly. The colour of Antedon bifida is varied, red, pink, orange or yellow, often mottled or banded.
Identifying features
  • Five pairs of feathery arms.
  • Central disc with mouth and umbulacral grooves on the upper surface.
  • Without stalk. Up to 25, rarely 30, short cirri on the undersurface of the central disc.
  • Oral side branches or pinnules long and modified, about 35 segments.
  • Three sizes of tube feet arranged in groups of three on the 'feathers' or pinnules of each arm.
Additional information icon Additional information Antedon bifida may be confused with another feather-star species Antedon petasus which has a more northerly distribution around the British Isles. Antedon petasus is larger and has 50 or so short cirri on the undersurface of the disc.

Want to know more? more

This review can be cited as follows:

Jacqueline Hill 2008. Antedon bifida. Rosy feather-star. Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme [on-line]. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. [cited 31/07/2010]. Available from: <http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesinformation.php?speciesID=2542>