Photo of the Day 170

Sea Star, Ireland, 2005

Photograph by Brian Skerry

There are some 2,000 species of sea stars, such as this striped invertebrate off Ireland's Atlantic coast, living in all the world's oceans. Sea stars are famous for their ability to regenerate limbs, and in some cases, entire bodies. They accomplish this by housing most or all of their vital organs in their arms.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Beneath Irish Isles," March 2005, National Geographic magazine)