A marine animal related to starfish and sea urchins, typically having a cup-shaped body with feathery arms, or resembling such a creature.
From Greek 'krinon' (lily) plus '-oid' (resembling), literally 'lily-like,' because early naturalists thought these sea creatures resembled lilies; the '-oid' suffix indicates something that looks like but isn't exactly the thing named.
Crinoids looked so much like flowers to early scientists that they named them for lilies, but they're actually ancient sea animals that thrived for over 300 million years—some of the oldest fossils show they were crawling around when dinosaurs hadn't even evolved yet.
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