montereybayaquarium:A feather star takes flight into abyssal skies, with flapping arms like so many
montereybayaquarium:A feather star takes flight into abyssal skies, with flapping arms like so many wings to soar through the eternal darkness of the deep sea. Feather stars—also known as crinoids—are related to sea stars, sea cucumbers and sea urchins as proud echinoderms. Oriented like a starfish lying on its back, a crinoid’s mouth points upward, ready to received morsels of food caught by its many feather-like arms and passed down by a bucket-brigade of tiny hairs. Usually, crinoids are found on the seafloor, holding on to the reef with bony, root-like cirri extending from their “back"—but if startled by, say, a giant ROV from our partners at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, they’ll take flight and swim to a new resting spot! -- source link
#ocean chat#tentacles#crinoids#nice