Title: Crown-of-thorns starfish
Content:  The crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci, is a large starfish that preys upon hard, or stony, coral polyps (Scleractinia). The crown-of-thorns starfish receives its name from venomous thorn-like spines that cover its upper surface, resembling the biblical crown of thorns. It is one of the largest starfish in the world. A. planci has a very wide Indo-Pacific distribution. It is perhaps most common around Australia, but can occur at tropical and subtropical latitudes from the Red Sea and the East African coast across the Indian Ocean, and across the Pacific Ocean to the west coast of Central America. It occurs where coral reefs or hard coral communities occur in the region.
Title: Starfish
Content:  keystone species concept in ecology. The tropical crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) is a voracious predator of coral throughout the Indo-Pacific region, and the northern Pacific sea star is considered to be one of the world's 100 worst invasive species. The fossil record for starfish is ancient, dating back to the Ordovician around 450 million years ago, but it is rather sparse, as starfish tend to disintegrate after death. Only the ossicles and spines of the animal are likely to be preserved, making remains hard to locate. With their appealing symmetrical shape, starfish have played a part in literature, legend, design and popular culture. They are sometimes collected as curios, used in design or as logos, and in some cultures, despite possible toxicity, they are eaten.
Title: Crown-of-thorns starfish
Content:  to 35 cm. They have up to 21 arms. Although the body of the crown of thorns has a stiff appearance, it is able to bend and twist to fit around the contours of the corals on which it feeds. The underside of each arm has a series of closely fitting plates, which form a groove and extend in rows to the mouth. Depending on diet or geographic region, individuals can be purple, purple-blue, reddish grey or brown with red spine tips, or green with yellow spine tips. The long, sharp spines on the sides of the starfish's arms and upper (aboral) surface 
Title: Crown-of-thorns starfish
Content:  fish have been observed to feed crown-of-thorns starfish in the Red Sea, but no evidence has found them to be a significant factor in population control. A study, however, based on the stomach contents of large carnivorous fish that are potential predators of the starfish, found no evidence of the starfish in the fish's guts. These carnivorous fish were caught commercially on the coral reefs on the Gulf of Oman and examined at local fish markets. One problem with the concept of predators of large juvenile and adult starfish causing total mortality is that the starfish have good regenerative powers and they would not keep still 
Title: Crown-of-thorns starfish
Content: A species of pufferfish and two triggerfish have been observed to feed on crown-of-thorns starfish in the Red Sea, and although they may have some effect on the A. planci population, no evidence exists of systematic predation. In the Indo-Pacific waters, white-spotted puffers, and Titan triggerfish have also been found to eat this starfish. ; Triton's trumpet, a very large gastropod mollusk, is a known predator of Acanthaster in some parts of the starfish's range. The Triton has been described as tearing the starfish to pieces with its file-like radula. ; The small painted shrimp Hymenocera picta, a general predator of starfish, has been found to prey on A. planci at some locations. A polychaete worm, Pherecardia striata, was 
Title: Crown-of-thorns starfish
Content:  temperature of the surrounding water. In tropical coral reefs, crown-of-thorns specimens reach mean locomotion rates of 35 cm/min, which explains how outbreaks can damage large reef areas in relatively short periods. The starfish show preferences between the hard corals on which they feed. They tend to feed on branching corals and table-like corals, such as Acropora species, rather than on more rounded corals with less exposed surface area, such as Porites species. Avoidance of Porites and some other corals may also be due to resident bivalve mollusks and polychaete worms in the surface of the coral, which discourage the starfish. Similarly, some symbionts, such as 
Title: Toxopneustes pileolus
Content:  In Okinawa, fishermen observed numerous individuals of the predatory crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) gathering around the remains of the internal organs of flower urchins. A follow-up study by Japanese researchers in 2001 confirmed that the viscera of flower urchins could indeed attract crown-of-thorns starfish in both aquarium and open sea experiments. The attractant compounds were isolated and identified as arachidonic acid and α-linolenic acid. The authors believe that this discovery may be used to augment population control measures of the crown-of-thorns starfish, which are highly destructive to coral reefs.
Title: Crown-of-thorns starfish
Content:  thorns and create a crown-like shape, giving the creature its name. The spines can range from 4 to 5 cm long and are stiff, very sharp, and readily pierce through soft surfaces. Despite the battery of sharp spines on the aboral surface and blunt spines on the oral surface, the crown-of-thorns starfish's general body surface is membranous and soft. When the starfish is removed from the water, the body surface ruptures and the body fluid leaks out, so the body collapses and flattens. The spines bend over and flatten, as well. They recover their shape when reimmersed, if they are still alive.
Title: Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef
Content:  The Crown-of-Thorns Starfish is a coral reef predator which preys on coral polyps by climbing onto them, extruding its stomach over them, and releasing digestive enzymes to absorb the liquefied tissue. An individual adult of this species can eat up to six square meters of living reef in a single year. Geological evidence suggests that the Crown-of-Thorns Starfish has been part of the Great Barrier Reef's ecology for "at least several thousand years", but there is no geological evidence for Crown of Thorns outbreaks. The first known outbreak occurred during the 1960s. Large outbreaks of these starfish can devastate reefs. In 2000, an outbreak contributed 
Title: Crown-of-thorns starfish
Content:  The late brachiolaria search substrates with their arms, and when offered a choice of substrates, tend to settle on coralline algae, on which they subsequently feed. In the classic pattern for echinoderms, the bilaterally symmetrical larva is replaced by a pentamerously symmetrical stage at metamorphosis, with the latter's body axis bearing no relationship to that of the larva. Thus, the newly metamorphosed starfish are five-armed and are 0.4–1.0 mm in diameter. (Note the size of the tube feet relative to the size of the animal.) They feed on the thin coating layers of hard, encrusting algae (coralline algae) on the undersides of dead coral rubble and 

Question: where did the crown of thorns starfish come from?
Answer: Indo-Pacific.