Acanthaster (from Ancient Greek ἄκανθα (ákantha), meaning "spine, thorn", and ἀστήρ (astḗr), meaning "star") is a genus of large and venomous starfish placed in the monotypic family, Acanthasteridae. Its members are known as crown-of-thorns starfish.
Acanthaster are native to coral reefs in Indo-Pacific region and are generally confined to tropical seas where they inhabit coral reefs, usually in the littoral zone. However, one member, A. brevispinus has been recorded in deeper waters. The species feed on coral polyps and hence are a contributor to coral reef degradation as they prey on a large amount of live coral at high density.
Species Image Scientific name Distribution NotesAcanthaster benziei(Wörheide, Kaltenbacher, Cowan & Haszprunar, 2022) Red Sea Mah, C.L. (2026). Acanthaster Gervais, 1841. World Asteroidea database. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=205212 on 2026-10-07Gert Wörheide, Emilie Kaltenbacher, Zara-Louise Cowan et Gerhard Haszprunar, « A new species of crown-of-thorns sea star, Acanthaster benziei sp. nov. (Valvatida: Acanthasteridae), from the Red Sea », Zootaxa, 2022Acanthaster brevispinus(Fisher, 1917)western Pacific Ocean, Southeast Asia Acanthaster mauritiensi(de Loriol, 1885) Southern Indian Ocean Acanthaster planci (Linnaeus, 1758) Indo-Pacific
Some sources add Acanthaster ellisi, (Gray, 1840) in the eastern Pacific, but it is now considered as a subspecies of A. planci. Haszprunar, Vogler & Wörheide (2017) suggest Acanthaster solaris (Schreber, 1795), which is currently considered a synonym of A. planci, to be idntified as a separate species.
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