Patrick Starr perfectly represents everything that is wrong with how we think of Starfish.

Or perhaps better, he uncovers the slight but significant imprecision with which we define this animal.

Patrick Starr, the character from SpongeBob, lovable though he may be, is lazy and stupid.

And we think of starfish in much the same way. We think of them as immobile animals that are barely capable of doing anything.

Though we might not put the negative anthropomorphic connotations on it, we are, in essence,

thinking of these creatures as lazy and stupid.

But they are neither of those things.

Today we're going to get a little more precise.

Today we're going to talk about an animal who is brainless, but somehow still quite smart.

Slow, but not inactive, in fact, inordinately aggressive.

Today we're going to talk about a vicious predator, a bizarre creature, an animal who thinks with their arms, and does about

everything else with them too. The Pink Sea Star, Pissaster, Previspenus. I'm Mackin, this

is species. Beans. I'm Mackin. This is Species.

Welcome to the show. If you didn't watch SpongeBob SquarePants growing up, that introduction will have been more or less meaningless for you. I assure you that that bit of cultural

context is irrelevant to the remainder, though we are actually talking about the specific species Patrick Starr is based on.

If you enjoy this show, if this show is valuable to you, please consider going to speciespodcast.com slash donate and supporting the show in accordance with that value.

Every cent that this show has, 100% of the funding, comes from your generosity, and the help is so greatly appreciated.

Even a dollar a month, literally a quarter an episode, makes a tremendous difference.

Thank you so much for the support.

And thank you to Eric and the Animals for playing me in.

And now without further ado, I present to you the starfish.

Our speed is not the normal speed.

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