Large Fossil Sea Lily (Crinoid) Mural

AN UNCOMMONLY LARGE AND EXQUISITE EXAMPLE OF AN ANCIENT SEA LILY FOSSIL

Ancient sea lilies — also known as crinoids (Seirocrinus subangularis) — belonged to the Echinodermata phylum and were thus distantly related to modern-day starfish and sea urchins. A number of unique characteristics that appear nowhere else in the animal kingdom gave sea lilies their surreal appearance, most notably their pentaradial symmetry and a water vascular system that maintained hydraulic pressure in their tubular "feet."

Despite their name and flower-like appearance, ancient sea lilies were not plants, but rather vibrantly-colored, tentacular invertebrate sea animals. Each sea lily would open its calyx (resembling the petals of a flower), which contained a filter-like organ that helped it capture and feed off of plankton. Sea lilies would often attach themselves to driftwood as part of a colony or — as in the case of this excellent specimen — as a solitary animal suspended from a mass of wood, both drifting together in the sea. In the mural offered here, the wood that the sea lily was attached to has fossilized and been preserved along with the specimen.