Ophiuroidea or brittle stars
Most brittle stars are was to separate from the other echinoderms; they a relatively small central disc, surrounded by 5 long, articulated, tapering arms, typically covered with short spines. Their English name comes from the ease with which they can autotomize (voluntarily) break their arms when threatened. Like the breaking tail of some lizard, this mechanism, distract a predator and may allow the animal to escape into a crevice of the reef or into the sediment.They are at many species of ophiuroids in Oman, but they are typically difficult to collect and even more difficult to photograph because of their cryptic behavior.
One family differ in their overall morphology as their arms is subdivided almost fractally into finer and finer subdivisions. Only one species of gorgonocephalidae was found and photographed in Dhofar.
Brittle stars with 5 or occasionally 6 long and slightly tapering arms
Brittle stars with complex fractally dividing arms
