Brittle stars live in a variety of habitats around the world. There are 73 species in the Arctic alone! There, they live at various depths, with some species occurring deeper than 3,500 meters. In the Alaskan Arctic, you can find most species on shallower ocean shelf waters.

Brittle stars play a pretty important role in the food web. They are known as “seafloor ecosystem engineers,” meaning they reshape the sediment shape on the seafloor, which in turn influences the distribution of other seafloor species. Brittle stars use their mouths (found on the underbelly of their disks) to munch on small organisms and detritus. They can also filter feed organisms from the ocean water. On the flip side, they are prey for fish, sea stars and crabs.