During low tide today I found a Striped Sun Star (Solaster stimpsoni) eating a sea cucumber (Tutka Bay, Alaska).

The second photo is the underside of the sunstar, and you can see its stomach which is protruding out from its mouth (because it was eating the sea cucumber that is in the third photo). After I took the photos, I returned it to finish its meal (while it was eating a sea cucumber this time, they also eat other sea stars).

Amazing creatures!

Striped Sun Star (Solaster stimpsoni)

This is the underside, note the stomach protuding out the mouth.

This is the sea cucumber that the striped sun star was eating.

Close-up of that stomach protruding from the mouth on the underside of the striped sun star.