24-rayed Sunstar, Heliaster solaris
A poorly-understood and rarely documented species of sea star, Heliaster solaris was first described in 1840 by John Edward Gray. It was native to the waters around Española Island in the Galápagos. The species has not been sighted since the early 1980s, when the Galápagos experienced the effects of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. This drastically affected the local climate and, combined with the effects of an increasingly heavy tourism industry in the islands, appears to have led to the specie’s decline and extinction.
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