Saving the Sunflower Sea Star | Los Angeles News

Presented by The Plant Daddies — rare specimen trees, living art, and hand-carved limestone vessels and fountains for extraordinary spaces. Showrooms in Los Angeles and Irvine. Listeners of Los Angeles News Today receive 10% off with code LANEWS10. theplantdaddies.com/lanews The sunflower sea star, once a pizza-sized ocean giant roaming Southern California, is now critically endangered thanks to a deadly wasting disease fueled by warming waters. As the ecosystem’s top urchin bouncer, its disappearance has unleashed a kelp forest crisis. But hope is brewing: scientists at San Diego and Omaha Zoos have pioneered a breakthrough in captive breeding, successfully freezing larvae for the first time — a tiny but monumental win. This effort is part of the San Diego Zoo’s Frozen Zoo, the world’s only wildlife biobank, preserving genetic material from thousands of species since 1975 — a vital time capsule for conservation, research, and fighting extinction. Listen in comfort:Get a discount on a Soli Pillow: http://solipillow.com/discount/dnn. Advertise on DNN:[email protected] This is an automated, high-level news summary based on public reporting.Report issues to [email protected]. View sources & latest updates:https://sources.thednn.ai/52d8c5e086c15fe2