MEXICAN STAR POWER

ztec rulers were fascinated by a particular variety of starfish whose orange-and-brown coloration resembled one of their most venerated, also known as the chocolate chip star due to its dark brown spots, is found in the Pacific Ocean. “The starfish’s coloration looks like a jaguar’s fur,” says archaeologist Miguel Báez Pérez of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History. “This is probably what attracted the Aztecs to it.” He adds that its presence in Tenochtitlan speaks to the Aztec conquest of the Pacific coast under the emperor Ahuitzotl (r. 1486–1502). Starfish have been found before at the Templo Mayor—Aztec rulers kept them alive in shallow pools—but never this many in one place.