Seafood is, obviously, yummy. Even the ingredients that sound as though they should be terrible end up being absolutely amazing. No one normal looks at a sea urchin and thinks, “dinner”. It makes you wonder what else we might be missing out on just because it looks like it should taste like a spikey bogey. 

It’s all very well getting over unappetising first impressions in order to unearth something delicious. It’s quite another when the food in question already looks like it’s slid straight out of a kitchen. This was the situation that confronted a group of scientists this week, when they discovered a rare species of starfish that looks exactly like a raviolo living on the bottom of the sea. Who says most food looks horrible before you’ve cooked it?

The discovery was made as part of the Ocean Exploration and Research group’s ongoing study of life on the bottom of the ocean. Using a deep water submersible, the team have been documenting species about which almost nothing is known, including the delicious looking “ravioli” star. 

According to a blog written by the OER to commemorate this year’s Fourth of July celebrations:

“This species stands out because the arms and disk are nearly confluent, thus presenting a more pentagonal shape relative to other sea stars.”

“This species has been recorded in many trawl-collected specimen records in the past, but perhaps what makes our observations of this species here SO significant is the numerous FEEDING observations that have been made.”

“On one dive, we observed some very large individuals of this species perched on the surface of numerous glass sponges.”

It might look like it belongs on a Florentine street stall, but scientists have unsurprisingly been able to confirm whether or not the ravioli star is actually as delicious as it looks. Despite appearances, the chances of it being stuffed with spinach and ricotta seem relatively slim. It looks like we’ll have to wait until an intrepid oceanographer gets overwhelmingly peckish before we know for sure.

Seafood is, obviously, yummy. Even the ingredients that sound as though they should be terrible end up being absolutely amazing. No one normal looks at a sea urchin and thinks, “dinner”. It makes you wonder what else we might be missing out on just because it looks like it should taste like a spikey bogey. 

It’s all very well getting over unappetising first impressions in order to unearth something delicious. It’s quite another when the food in question already looks like it’s slid straight out of a kitchen. This was the situation that confronted a group of scientists this week, when they discovered a rare species of starfish that looks exactly like a raviolo living on the bottom of the sea. Who says most food looks horrible before you’ve cooked it?

The discovery was made as part of the Ocean Exploration and Research group’s ongoing study of life on the bottom of the ocean. Using a deep water submersible, the team have been documenting species about which almost nothing is known, including the delicious looking “ravioli” star. 

According to a blog written by the OER to commemorate this year’s Fourth of July celebrations:

“This species stands out because the arms and disk are nearly confluent, thus presenting a more pentagonal shape relative to other sea stars.”

“This species has been recorded in many trawl-collected specimen records in the past, but perhaps what makes our observations of this species here SO significant is the numerous FEEDING observations that have been made.”

“On one dive, we observed some very large individuals of this species perched on the surface of numerous glass sponges.”

It might look like it belongs on a Florentine street stall, but scientists have unsurprisingly been able to confirm whether or not the ravioli star is actually as delicious as it looks. Despite appearances, the chances of it being stuffed with spinach and ricotta seem relatively slim. It looks like we’ll have to wait until an intrepid oceanographer gets overwhelmingly peckish before we know for sure.