A sunflower sea star may be about to snack on some sea urchins in California. Brent Durand/Moment via Getty Images Before 2013, divers on North America’s west coast rarely saw purple sea urchins. The ...

The announcement earlier this month that scientists had discovered the cause of a disease that had killed billions of iconic sunflower sea stars was big news for a small lab on San Juan Island, ...

Before 2013, divers on North America's west coast rarely saw purple sea urchins. The spiky animals, which are voracious kelp eaters, were a favorite food of the coast's iconic sunflower sea stars. The ...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Rebecca Vega Thurber, University of California, Santa Barbara (THE CONVERSATION) ...