Asterias rollestoni is a common starfish native to the seas of China and Japan, and not known from the far north or the American coasts of the eastern Pacific.

[1][5] A synonym, Allasterias forficulosa, was described by Addison Emery Verrill in 1914 from a collection made in Japan in 1913 (see image).

[1][6][7] In 1930 Walter Kenrick Fisher subsumed it as a forma of Asterias amurensis,[2][8][9][10] and further stated that A. rollestoni might well intergrade with A. versicolor to the south of its range.

[6] In 1930 Fisher stated that Asterias rollestoni might well intergrade with A. versicolor to the south of its range,[9] and in 1940 Hayashi also found it to be most closely related to A.

This begins four days after amputation, when cells near the end of the stump de-differentiate and migrate to the wound where they form a thickened skin which gradually re-differentiates into mature tissue.