We're at 1,150 feet and 250 feet off the bottom.
Unchanged for
eons the dark alien deaths and miles of
uncharted territory of the deep sea
tease the curious with their unexplored secrets.
Every time you go down in the submersible
there's always something that's a surprise.
Every submersible dive is a discovery.
My favorite thing is seeing some things that
I didn't know existed before.
Much of what lives in the deep is little known
or understood. This includes a group of
animals few people have ever heard of,
some of which seem eerily like an
outstretched hand reaching from the
grave. While others look like a field of flowers.
For the first moment I learned
about crinoids I've been enthralled with them.
I just think they're beautiful
organisms.
Crinoids are the sea lilies and feather stars.
They're one big group
of the major branch of animal life
called the echinoderms, which includes
the sea stars, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers.
Crinoids are often referred to
as living fossils because the forms that
exist now are very similar to some forms
that existed during the age of dinosaurs.
They've been around for a very long time.
Crinoids are found all over the world
there are Arctic and Antarctic and
tropical crinoids. There are some species
that are found as shallow as just below
the low-tide mark and there are crinoids
in the deepest ocean trenches.
My belief is these guys don't have natural deaths
they died into predation, in other words
they will live virtually forever if you let them.
What remains to be discovered
about these living fossils?
What can modern crinoids tell us about
their ancient relatives?