---
title: Mammillated Sea Star (Pentaceraster mammillatus)
scientific_name: Pentaceraster mammillatus
common_name: Mammillated Sea Star
taxon: Starfish
published: 2026-08-06T16:37:23.098Z
updated: 2026-08-20T17:02:40.040Z
tags: Mammillated Sea Star, Pentaceraster mammillatus, Starfish, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/echinoderms/starfish/mammillated-sea-star
---

# Mammillated Sea Star (*Pentaceraster mammillatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Starfish (*Asteroidea*)
- **Size:** up to 30 cm
- **Depth:** 2-30 m
- **Diet:** Omnivore
- **Activity:** Cathemeral
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Sand and seagrass beside reef
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric

## How to recognise it

- heavy body with rows of blunt conical tubercles
- thick triangular arms, broad at the base
- orange to brown, tubercles often darker
- diameter up to 30 cm

A heavy, thick-armed star reaching about 30 cm (12 in), orange to brown, its back set with rows of blunt conical tubercles that are usually darker than the body between them. The arms are broad at the base and taper sharply, giving a solid, almost architectural outline quite unlike the slender species on the same reef.

It lives on sand and seagrass beside reef from about 2 m to 30 m (7 to 100 ft), pushing slowly through the top layer and feeding on detritus, small invertebrates and organic film. Audouin described it in 1826 from material gathered during the French expedition to Egypt, which puts it among the earliest animals named from these shores - the same survey that produced the first scientific descriptions of a long list of local species. It is nowhere abundant here and turns up as scattered individuals rather than groups, most often on open sand where its bulk and tubercles make it visible from a distance.

## Also known as

- **English:** Multicolored Knobbed Sea Star, Multicolored Knobbed Starfish, Beaded Starfish
- **Italian:** Stella di mare nodosa
- **Czech:** hvězdice strukovitá
- **Russian:** Бугорчатая звезда
- **TH:** ดาวแดง

## Scientific synonyms

- *Asterias mammillata* Audouin, 1826
- *Oreaster mammillatus* (Audouin, 1826)
- *Oreaster verrucosus* Müller & Troschel, 1842
- *Pentaceros mammillatus* (Audouin, 1826)
- *Pentaceros verrucosus* (Muller & Troschel, 1842)

## Range

Eastern Africa & Madagascar, Egyptian Exclusive Economic Zone, Federal Republic of Somalia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, South Africa, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/echinoderms/starfish/mammillated-sea-star)*
*Updated: August 20, 2026*