About Pentagonaster duebeni Gray, 1847
Pentagonaster duebeni is a five-armed, flattened starfish with blunted arms separated by rounded arcs. Its surface is covered in layered polygonal plates colored red and orange, with yellow-white incisions between the plates. For most specimens, arm length is equal to the diameter of the central disc, and the species reaches a maximum total length and width of 8 centimeters. The diet of P. duebeni consists of sponges, bryozoans, and other invertebrates. Specimens collected from southern Western Australia differ in appearance and size: their plates are various shades of dark to light red and have raised dorsal surfaces, they have slightly longer arms, and have been recorded at over 11 centimeters in width.
Pentagonaster duebeni is distributed along Australian coasts from Shark Bay to Tasmania and southern Queensland. It prefers to live on both exposed and sheltered reefs, at depths of up to 160 meters below sea level.
