Crinoids and Echinoderms

Crinoids and Echinoderms are actually animals though they sometimes appear similar to plants. Fossil Echinoderms are related to the modern day starfish, sea urchins and even the deep sea crinoids of today. These animals were filter feeders capturing their food with long tentacled arms. They would pass the food down using “Tube feet” to the mouth that was centrally located on the creature. They were attached to the sea floor by a structure called a “holdfast”. Since they are animals and not plants we do not call the attachment point a root. Many of these echinoderms are now extinct but a few relatives do remain until today.

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