Paulasterias tyleri was discovered during a deep sea research cruise organized by the National Oceanography Centre.

It has a thick fleshy skin on the aboral (upper) surface, with spongy tissue underneath it.

Starfish are unable to cope with the hot, sulphurous, toxic environment of the hydrothermal vent itself but they are present in the cooler, cleaner water nearby.

Hoff crabs live adjacent to the hydrothermal vent chimneys, with gastropod molluscs and then goose barnacles occupying zones further out.

Beyond this is an assemblage dominated by sea anemones, and it is on these and on the goose barnacles that the starfish probably feed.