A study led by experts from the University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Biology and Institute for Research on Biodiversity (IRBio) have identified a disease that is affecting the starfish Odontaster validus, one of the most common species on the Antarctic sea floor. The disease, which is the first to be described in an echinoderm in Antarctica’s marine environment, has afflicted up to 10 percent of the population of the species, the most important benthic predator in the coastal communities of Deception Island and other marine regions in Antarctic latitudes.