Scientists have long suspected two species of sea stars—commonly referred to as starfish—along rocky European and North American coastlines of crossbreeding in the cool waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. Now, according to recently analyzed genomic data, hybrid starfish are living and thriving, from the shores of New England to the Canadian Maritimes.
—Asterias rubens, the common starfish, and Asterias forbesi, known as Forbes' sea star.
Through the genomic data, the scientists found that widespread hybridization had occurred between the two species of sea stars from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia. The study highlights the ecological importance of both sea stars, considered to be"keystone species" with significant impacts on surrounding marine communities. When they're removed from their intertidal communities—the coastal zones between high and low tide—diversity among those entire ecosystems has been shown to collapse, Giakoumis said.
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