Whenever we see an animal displaying human characteristics, we find it hilarious. It might be because they are absolutely ignorant of how they sometimes look, but I believe it is because they actually point out our silliest traits.

When Twitter user @babyshoujo shared a picture of what many thought was a starfish, it almost immediately caught the world’s attention.

The Twitterer wrote “Saw a thicc a** starfish at the aquarium today”, but she surely didn’t expect the 171,000 retweets and 635,000 likes in no time! The photo appeared to feature a reddish-pink sea creature clinging to a blue wall with what looked like ‘giant glutes’.

The image taken was taken at Aquarium of the Pacific, in California, and as soon as it appeared online, users wrote comedic replies to the user. The photo takes you back to the times you watched Sponge Bob, dreamed about the sea, and laughed at Patrick’s wild antics.

Many of them compared the sea creature to Patrick after undergoing a rigorous exercise routine. Another one suggested the starfish resembled Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Yet, the cartoon-like being was not a typical starfish, but a very large derriere!

Yet, what made many fall in love and split their sides with it was its appearance of a starfish with a large butt!

This starfish is GOALS pic.twitter.com/oiaHqrOBur

— Rachel eschner (@rachel_esh) October 20, 2019

Yet, it is not that amusing to scientists, and marine biologists would surely like to clarify things right away: it is not a starfish.

First of all, starfish do not exist, and the real name is “sea star”.

Nate Jaros, curator of fish and invertebrates at the Aquarium of the Pacific cleared up a few misconceptions about the photograph once and for all. He explained that the image showed neither a ‘starfish’ nor a ‘butt’.

‘Sea stars are actually invertebrates or animals without backbones and not fish, despite people commonly referring to them as ‘starfish. In this photo, the sea star is on a vertical rock face with two of its arms holding the rock and two arms hanging in a relaxed position. 

‘Sea stars sometimes relax their arms such as when they are eating. Since the sea star is oriented vertically, gravity is causing its internal components to slump.’ 

Sea stars are vastly different from fish, they lack gills, fins, scales, and blood. They are also echinoderms, sea creatures that have perfect symmetry. They move remarkably fast, speeding along at one meter per minute, and function in the deepest parts of the sea.

They are carnivores that can live up to 35 years and weigh 11 pounds.

We are sorry to disappoint you, but even though you envision a lovely 5-pointed animal when you hear of starfish or a sea star, these animals can sometimes have 40 arms. What’s more, if they lose one, it grows back!

Sources:
www.wfla.com
www.dailymail.co.uk
www.mirror.co.uk