Biology/Natural History: One of the largest known ophiuroids, it can have a diameter of up to half a meter. It feeds on suspended particles by spreading its rays out like a fan, oriented mostly perpendicular to the current. Macroscopic zooplankton such as copepods, chaetognaths, and jellyfish are caught by microscopic hooks on the rays. The fine branchlet tips (see picture) then curl around the object and slowly move it toward the mouth (exact method is unclear). The prey of basket star species is said to range up to 3 cm (just over an inch) in size, and most basket stars capture prey mainly at night but may retain their prey until daytime to actually feed on them. Mucus may also help to immobilize prey. This species has also been reported to feed on the small benthic sea pen Stylatula elongata.

This species seems to have a strong co-occurrence with the soft coral Gersemia rubiformis. In Puget Sound, Gorgonocephalus juveniles have been reported within the pharynges of Gersemia polyps, where they appear to develop and apparently feed. The young do not leave the Gersemia until their rays are long enough to capture food.

Unlike any other local ophiuroid, the rays of the basket star branch repeatedly dichotomously. The central disk is covered with a loose-fitting skin with a dark brown color between the bases of the rays and a pinkish color, more similar to the ray color, near the ray bases. Actual color may be variable from tan, beige, orange-red, and pink to almost white; but the central disk is usually darker than the rays.

Beaufort Sea, Canadian part of the Arctic Ocean, European waters (ERMS scope), Gulf of St. Lawrence, North West Atlantic, United Kingdom Exclusive Economic Zone

Juveniles are known to live on, or in, the polyps of alvyonarians (Patent, 1970)

lower North Shore; Prince Edward Island (from the northern tip of Miscou Island, N.B. to Cape Breton Island south of Cheticamp, including the Northumberland Strait and Georges Bay to the Canso Strait causeway)

Geographical Range: Bering Sea to Laguna Beach, CA, East Siberian Sea, Chukchi Sea, Japan, North Atlantic down to Massachusetts, Faeroe Islands.

"On the west coast of North America from Alaska to California, the Bering Sea to the Sea of Japan, Okhotsk Sea, Laptev Sea, across the Arctic to Greenland, Finmark, Spitzbergen, and south to Cape Code; 8-1850 metres." (Lambert, Austin 2007)

"Disc: Up to 14 cm in diameter, indented between the radial shields and covered with thick skin. The radial shields taper towards the centre where they nearly meet with opposite shields; they are densely covered with scales bearing rough granules.

Arms: Branching and coiling at the tips, the arms are higher than their width in cross-section and have up to five lateral arm spines, four or fewer on distal branches. The spines have hooks with three teeth. Hooks are also borne on the vertical ridges of embedded plates on the dorsal and lateral arm surfaces.

Mouth: Contains spine-like teeth and oral papillae.

Colour: Usually tan with dark brown markings on the dorsal side of the disc, but throughout its range this species can be maroon, reddish, orange, salmon, pink and white." (Lambert, Austin 2007)

How to Distinguish from Similar Species: There are no other basket stars in the Rosario area.

infralittoral and circalittoral of the Gulf and estuary

Depth range based on 23 specimens in 1 taxon.
Water temperature and chemistry ranges based on 15 samples.

Environmental ranges
  Depth range (m): 54 - 1460
  Temperature range (°C): -1.315 - 8.165
  Nitrate (umol/L): 6.019 - 44.769
  Salinity (PPS): 32.056 - 34.983
  Oxygen (ml/l): 0.763 - 7.743
  Phosphate (umol/l): 0.821 - 3.254
  Silicate (umol/l): 5.390 - 160.825

Graphical representation

Depth range (m): 54 - 1460

Temperature range (°C): -1.315 - 8.165

Nitrate (umol/L): 6.019 - 44.769

Salinity (PPS): 32.056 - 34.983

Oxygen (ml/l): 0.763 - 7.743

Phosphate (umol/l): 0.821 - 3.254

Silicate (umol/l): 5.390 - 160.825
 
Note: this information has not been validated. Check this *note*. Your feedback is most welcome.

Depth Range: Subtidal, 10 m to nearly 2000 m, most commonly 15-150 m.

Habitat: Usually on rocky bottoms with moderate to strong currents. Sometimes on sandy or muddy bottoms which have projecting boulders, sea fans, or sea pens.

"Juveniles of this species inhabit the pharynx of the feeding polyps of the sea strawberry Gersemia up to a size of 0.5 cm disc diameter. At this stage they possibly intercept the food collected by the polyp. Later they can be found attached to adult basket stars while feeding on plankton. Up to five young were found clinging to an adult. As adults they attach to the substrate with some of their arms and extend the others into the water in a dish-like shape facing the current. Plankton caught by hooks on the arms are rolled up in strings of mucus, and then transferred to the mouth. In the stomach, prey are wrapped in bundles of mucus. Gorgonocephalus eucnemis eats mostly crustaceans and arrow worms with an occasional fish embryo or jellyfish. Without cilia on the arms, this species will not likely capture unicellular organisms." (Lambert, Austin 2007)

"The sex ratio of animals around the San Juan Islands is about 1:1, with 2.6 per cent hermaphrodites. The gonads grow during the summer, and spawning occurs from October to February. New gametes begin to form immediately after spawning, but development pauses until later in the cycle when final maturation takes place. This pause corresponds to a seasonal reduction in plankton density. Early larvae have no locomotory structures and they appear to be passively captured by Gersemia polyps, in which they being their life history. Animals grow rapidly up to a disc size of 5.5 cm." (Lambert, Austin 2007)

The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.


There are 4 barcode sequences available from BOLD and GenBank.  Below is a sequence of the barcode region Cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI or COX1) from a member of the species.  See the BOLD taxonomy browser for more complete information about this specimen and other sequences.


Download FASTA File

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 4
Specimens with Barcodes: 4
Species With Barcodes: 1