Lilies of the sea
The sea lily is an animal that looks like a flower and is made almost
entirely of chalk!
This sounds impossible, but it’s true. A sea lily looks like a flower
with lacy, feathery petals on the end of a long stem. But it is an
animal. It has nerves, muscles, and a mouth that takes in food. The
\”stem” is made mostly of chalk, covered with very thin skin. The main
part of the body is at the top of the stem. Branching out from the body
are five featherlike arms.
Sea lilies live on the sea bottom, in very deep places where the water
is quiet. To catch food, a sea lily spreads its feathery arms to form a
kind of net. Tiny bits of food that drift down from above are caught in
sticky grooves in the arms. The food is carried down the grooves to the
sea lily’s mouth.
Female sea lilies lay eggs that drift down to the sea bottom. The babies
break out of the eggs after about five days. They are tiny, egg-shaped,
swimming creatures. After a time, they fasten themselves to the sea
bottom and slowly grow into flowerlike adults. Most kinds of sea lilies
grow to be about two feet (60 cm) in height.
Sea lilies live in large groups, close together. Where they live, the
sea bottom looks like an underwater garden filled with pink, yellow, or
red flowers.
