 About AIMSResearchFacilitiesNewsSearchSite mapSite index   |
OCCURRENCE IN THE PAST
16. When were crown-of-thorns starfish first recorded on coral reefs? This starfish was first described by a biologist called Georg Rumphius in 1705. It was given a scientific name, Acanthasterplanci, in 1758 by Karl von Linne (in latin, Linnaeus) who originated the procedures currently used to classify plants and animals. It is likely that the crown-of-thorns starfish has been present on reefs for a long time, perhaps millions of years. There is some fossil evidence to suggest this. Unfortunately, it is not known whether outbreaks of this starfish have occurred on reefs over a similar length of time.
web@aims.gov.au |