Blood star amid hydroids at San Clemente. Humans (and other vertebrates) resemble the juvenile stages of sea stars and other echinoderms, suggesting that we are descended from them: an offshoot clan that never grows up. But, the axis that corresponds to the human backbone runs vertically through the center of the sea star. Resemblance of a 5-pointed human to an adult sea star is as much of a coincidence as resemblance to a mandrake root.
