Crinoids look like plants.

But they are animals.

We saw them living on the reef in the Philippines and were facinated by how they could look like plants but swim at least as well as Jellies.  You shouldn’t call Jelly fish, jelly fish any more because they aren’t technically fish.  It is like the bison – buffalo debate.  But I digress.

I have posted a collection of crinoid pictures on Flickr Photo credit to Gene B for all of these pictures

When you accidentally touch a Crinoid it feels like velcro.  But the amazing thing about them is that they might look like plants but they are animals.  They have root like bottom tentacles that they use to grab onto something and they use the upper tentacle to filter food particles out of the water and pass them down to their mouths in the center.

As Chris Huss the brilliant photographer pointed out most of the living thing you see on the reef are animals.

In the Philippines Sea Horses, Clown Fish and Nudibranchs get all of the attention but one of my favorites was the ubiquitous Crinoid.

nudibranchs