Sea Lilies and Feather Stars: Crinoidea

Sea lilies and feather stars are sea animals with five arms and a mouth that faces up. The main body part is the crown, which holds the mouth, digestive tract, and anus (AY-nuhs). The arms grow out of the crown. Sea lilies have a stalk below the crown and look like flowers. Feather stars have a cluster of tentacles below the crown and look like ferns. The arms of both animals usually have branches, as many as two hundred in some species. Each arm and branch has a food groove lined with grabbers called tube feet. The arms of sea lilies and feather stars are 0.4 to 14 inches (1 to 35 centimeters) long. The sea lily stalk is about 3.3 feet (1 meter) long. Feather stars are white, black, purple, red, green, brown, violet, or a combination of colors. The deeper the animals live, the paler is the color. Sea lilies are white.