Red Sea star named after Worldfish scientist

A crown-of-thorns sea star native to the Red Sea has been named after Worldfish’s Dr John Benzie in recognition of his groundbreaking genetic studies on crown-of-thorns sea stars in the 1990s and early 2000s. Worldfish is an international, non-profit research and innovation institution that creates, advances, and translates aquatic food systems science into scalable solutions.

The sea star, named Acanthaster benziei, has now been identified as a distinct species by a team led by Gert Wörheide, Professor of Palaeontology and Geobiology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and Gerhard Haszprunar, Professor of Systematic Zoology at LMU, using morphological studies and genetic analyses.