Yellow Feather Star on Coral Reef
© cinoby/E+/Getty Images
Seafloor shrubbery
Their name may sound like alien antagonists from a 'Star Trek' episode, but the crinoids have shared a home planet with us for quite some time. These filter feeders of Earth's final frontier date back about 480 million years in the fossil record, and stone landforms made up mainly of crinoid ossicles exist across the globe. Shrublike specimens such as this bright yellow fellow are commonly called feather stars, a nod to their fellow echinoderms the starfish. Others bound to long, thin stalks are known as sea lilies ('crinoid' comes from the Greek 'krinon,' which means lily).
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