Most sea stars are carnivores (eating live animals) or scavengers (eating dead animals). They feed on prey that move slowly such as polychaete worms or not at all such as oysters. Most sea stars turn their own stomachs inside out onto the bodies of their prey to spread digestive juices. As the prey's body softens, the sea star pulls its stomach back into its mouth. The food travels to another stomach for further breakdown. To eat an oyster, the sea star uses its tube feet to pry open the shells, then pokes its stomach inside to begin digestion. Populations of sea stars can damage coral reefs by inching along and digesting everything they come across. Some sea stars keep their stomachs in their bodies and swallow whole prey. After digestion, shells and other waste are expelled out their mouths. While they do not look fierce, sea stars are top predators in many ecosystems.

Echinoderms stand out as the only organisms on Earth with five arms or other elements spaced evenly around a central point. This pentaradial symmetry (penta = “five;” radial = “around a central point") is obvious in some echinoderms, such as sea stars or brittle stars that have five arms. It’s more subtle on others, such as the five rows of tube feet on a sea cucumber or five grooves on a sand dollar. This unusual symmetry of adult echinoderms is not found in juveniles. In fact, echinoderm larvae have two-sided (bilateral) symmetry like humans, and must undergo a metamorphosis to become pentaradial adults. Body plans of animals during their development often say something about their ancestry. The bilateral bodies of developing echinoderms are a reminder that, aside from other back-boned animals (vertebrates), echinoderms may be our closest relatives. Unlike most living echinoderms, many fossil echinoderms did not have pentaradial symmetry.