Sea lilies are marine animals that make up the class Crinoidea and that, in their adult form, look like a flower attached to the seabed by a stem. They have existed for about 480 million years, since the early Ordovician period, and still exist today, but in much smaller numbers than before. Currently, sea lilies live at depths between 200 and 10,000 meters, but in the past they were much more abundant and could be found even on the seashore.
Sea lilies look like flowers but are actually animals, possessing a mouth, filter-feeding arms, and an anus, and some even possess the ability to move along the ocean floor. The vast majority feed at night by filtering water and consuming plankton and decaying organic matter.
