Agaricocrinus

Information
Coral before corals

(Agaricocrinus americanus)

Often overlooked in favor of larger animals, crinoids constituted much of what covered the ocean floor during the Paleozoic. They were stationary echinoderms that had stems built out of calcium carbonate held together by ligaments, and feathered arms they used to siphon their favorite food: plankton. Crinoids dominated in the trillions throughout the Cambrian to the end of the Permian. The Great Dying wiped out most crinoid forms and sea lily diversity never recovered to previous levels. Whereas crinoids grew in almost all levels of water pre-extinction, afterward they resided in deeper waters away from the surface where anthozoan corals now dominate.