Ophiothrix spiculata

The Spiny Brittle star, Ophiothrix spiculata Le Conte, 1851, is a member of the Ophiuroidea another of the five classes of echinoderms. Brittle stars have a central disk that is clearly separated from long flexible arms often covered with spines. O. spiculata ranges from Moss Beach, California to Peru including the Galapagos Islands. It lives from the low rocky intertidal, under rocks, in crevices, and in algal holdfasts to subtidal depths of ~2,000 meters. Little is known about reproduction but spawning has been noted in July at Pacific Grove, California. Juveniles have been recovered from settling panels in the Monterey Bay from April to August.

The genome of O. spiculata is being sequenced by Baylor College of Medicine, Human Genome Sequencing Center under the NCBI project number PRJNA182997. The genome assembly and contigs are available as a BLAST database.