Introduction Bodies come in all shapes and sizes Some animals are big Others are small Some have special body parts that help them sense danger find food or provide other helpful information But not all animal bodies are created equal Just like superheroes in movies and book some animal bodies can do some amazing things Imagine a superhero that can clone itself or grow new body parts Imagine a hero whose body can surprise an attacker in an unusual way You’ll meet animals that can do these things and more in this book Let’s take a look at some super-powered and super-strange animal bodies 4
Grow a New One The Sea Star It’s easy to see how the sea star got its name Its arms or rays stick out from the center of its body to make the shape of a star Most sea stars have five rays but some have up to 50 rays A sea star is an invertebrate A sea star’s body has a hard exoskeleton and tough hard skin Its rays have tiny tube feet on the bottom These suckers help the sea star move around or grip onto a rock or the sea bottom If a sea star loses a ray it can grow a new one Sometimes a broken ray will grow into a whole new sea star Some types of sea stars can break in half Each half then grows into a whole creature Power Word Exo means external or outside The sea star’s skeleton is outside it’s soft body Humans have endoskeletons or inside the body 6
Now You Know Sea stars used to be called starfish But they are not fish at all This sea star is growing a new ray 7
