The centre of your body is wide, giving you a large stomach, and your 'legs' are more triangular to fit around it. This shape gives rise to your popular name: the starfish.
You walk around on the ocean floor, in depths ranging from sunlit coral reefs down to abysmal depths, with your lightly armoured back protecting you from most species, your mouth facing downward, and no particular direction being 'forward', although some legs may be preferentially used. Your legs have simple small eyes at each end.
With your powerful tube feet able to pry open bivalves by tiring out the muscles holding them closed, you become a predatory species, eating not just tiny bits of food like your recent ancestors, but whole small shellfish.
Some of you develop a neat trick of turning your mouth and stomach inside out and digesting whatever you press it against. This enables you to consume even larger prey as your mouth no longer needs to be bigger than your prey!
Many of you develop a fascinating life cycle, where the young are male, but then turn into females after a certain age. Some reproduce by budding, and some can regenerate their entire bodies from a single arm. Truly, you are one of the most amazing creatures on the planet.
Evolution starts with the Last Universal Ancestor.
You can find out what happened before evolution here.
You can also short-cut to Land plants, or Animals
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