Beautiful feather star
Himerometra robustipinna
Common feather star
Florometra serratissima
About
The common feather star is a reddish-brown feather star of the Pacific coast of North America. It usually lives in deep water.
Also known as: florometra serratissima
- Length
- 25 cm
- Depth
- up to 1252 m
How to tell it apart
A reddish-brown feather star with ten or more feathery arms on the Pacific coast of North America, where it is the only crinoid divers can see.
Appearance
Five jointed limbs branch into ten or more feathery arms, reaching about 25 cm across when extended. It is reddish-brown and grips the bottom with claw-like cirri underneath. Juveniles have a long stalk.
Habitat
It ranges from the Shumagin and Sanak Islands off Alaska south to Isla Natividad off Baja California, on rock or soft sediment, from 11 to 1,252 m. It lives deeper in warmer waters and shallower in colder waters.
Behaviour
It can walk on its cirri or swim by beating its arms. It chooses places with strong currents and extends its arms to catch drifting plankton. Lost arms can be regrown.
Diet
A suspension feeder that catches plankton floating past.
Did you know?
It is the only living crinoid that can be seen in the American Pacific, although mostly only experienced divers reach it.
Log it in Into the Blue
Describe what you saw and we name it, then keep every species you find in your Oceandex.
