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.
- 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
