Species group · Crinoids
WAnimals has 2 species of sea lily, spread across 2 families (Antedonidae, Isocrinidae).
Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 2.
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.
Recorded in 32 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
It is an echinoderm, a relative of the sea stars and urchins, though its flower-like appearance gives nothing away.
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It swims by beating its arms alternately in a surprisingly graceful motion, something unusual among echinoderms.
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If a predator tears off an arm it regrows it completely, and it can shed arms deliberately to escape.
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Stalked crinoids dominated the seabed through the Palaeozoic and formed veritable underwater forests whose remains make up entire beds of limestone; today they survive in deep water.
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Despite the stalk, it is not fixed for life: it can detach and crawl slowly across the bottom to a better spot, something only filmed in recent decades.
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Its stalk is made of stacked discs that come apart when it dies and turn up as fossils shaped like coins or screws.
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