Development of bipinnaria larvae of the Luidia sarsii starfish.

absolutely incredible metamorphosis on these buddies, that orange back end is the only part that continues on as an adult. they grow an entire new digestive tract in a different direction and switch from 2-way to 5-way symmetry. then they just discard the rest! it’s like they hatch from inside themselves

seriously?? imagine if human babies had their normal shape but then a whole other body attached to them that they just lost like baby teeth?? wtf?? nature is weirder than fiction

WAIT WAIT it’s WEIRDER i looked this up and wikipedia says: “The larva of the species attains an unusual size (up to 35 mm^[1]) and a juvenile starfish develops inside the larva. During metamorphosis the juvenile migrates to the outside and detaches from the swimming larval bipinnaria stage. The larva continues to live separately for several months.^[2]”

^{??? whaat ???}

imagine if your lost baby teeth got up and WALKED AWAY

they said the digestive tract changes directions, so I think this is like if you grew up and then your butt crawled away and you were the butt now

parent voice: happy birthday son, you ARE the butt now