> Sunflower sea stars — vividly colored creatures with up to 24 arms, and which can weigh as much as a small dog — once thrived along the Pacific Coast between Alaska and Baja California. Then, in 2013, a mysterious disease linked to a marine heat wave began to ravage the population. An estimated 5.75 billion sunflower sea stars perished, amounting to 94% of the global population. California lost about 99% of its Pycnopodia helianthoides to the wasting disease. Sunflower stars landed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s critically endangered list in 2020.<p>I had no idea.