Crinoids are marine animals that make up the class Crinoidea, one of the classes of the phylum Echinodermata, which also includes the starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins and sea cucumbers. Those crinoids which, in their adult form, are attached to the sea bottom by a stalk are commonly called sea lilies, while the unstalked forms are called feather stars or comatulids, being members of the largest crinoid order, Comatulida.
The Jerusalem artichoke, also called sunroot, sunchoke, wild sunflower, topinambur, or earth apple, is a species of sunflower native to central North America. It is cultivated widely across the temperate zone for its tuber, which is used as a root vegetable.
A holdfast is a root-like structure that anchors aquatic sessile organisms, such as seaweed, other sessile algae, stalked crinoids, benthic cnidarians, and sponges, to the substrate.
Blastoids are an extinct type of stemmed echinoderm, often referred to as sea buds. They first appear, along with many other echinoderm classes, in the Ordovician period, and reached their greatest diversity in the Mississippian subperiod of the Carboniferous period. However, blastoids may have originated in the Cambrian. Blastoids persisted until their extinction at the end of Permian, about 250 million years ago. Although never as diverse as their contemporary relatives, the crinoids, blastoids are common fossils, especially in many Mississippian-age rocks.
Calopogon, grass pink, is a genus of terrestrial orchids. The generic name is from Greek and means "beautiful beard", referring to the cluster of hairs adorning the labellum. The five species are native to the eastern United States, eastern Canada, Cuba and the Bahamas. The genus Calopogon is abbreviated Cpg in trade journals.
The Eocrinoidea are an extinct class of echinoderms that lived between the Early Cambrian and Late Silurian periods. They are the earliest known group of stalked, arm-bearing echinoderms, and were the most common echinoderms during the Cambrian.
Uintacrinus is an extinct genus of crinoids from the Cretaceous of Kansas. It was unusual among crinoids because it had no stalk, and probably floated above the seafloor. It lived in the Western Interior Seaway. This crinoid was a colonial animal with ten long arms each that it used to capture prey.
Bumastus is an extinct genus of corynexochid trilobites which existed from the Early Ordovician period to the Late Silurian period. They were relatively large trilobites, reaching a length of 6 in (15 cm). They were distinctive for their highly globular, smooth-surfaced exoskeleton. They possessed well-developed, large compound eyes and were believed to have dwelled in shallow-water sediments in life.
Agaricocrinus americanus, the mushroom crinoid, is a species of extinct crinoid, known only from its fossils, which are found in the U.S. states of Indiana, Tennessee and Kentucky. They date back to the Lower Mississippian, about 345 million years ago.
Periechocrinus is an extinct genus of crinoids belonging to the order Monobathrida, family Periechecrinidae.
Agaricocrinus is a genus of extinct crinoids, belonging to the family Coelocrinidae.
Platycrinites are an extinct genus of Paleozoic stalked crinoids belonging to the family Platycrinitidae.
Forbesiocrinus is an extinct genus of crinoids.
Taxocrinus is an extinct genus of crinoids.
Abrotocrinus is an extinct genus of crinoids.
Scytalocrinus is an extinct genus of crinoids.
Ulrichicrinus is an extinct genus of crinoids.
Delocrinus is a genus of extinct crinoids, belonging to the family Catacrinidae. Specimens have been found in Kansas Missouri Nebraska Nevada Oklahoma, Arizona, Iowa, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
Aporometra wilsoni is a marine invertebrate, a species of crinoid or feather star in the family Aporometridae. It is found in shallow water around the coasts of southern Australia.
