226 RADIATES: ECHINODERMS. 



CRINOIDS. 



The word Crinoid means lily-like in form, and is 

 given to a large number of echinoderms on account 

 of their lily-like or plant-like appearance. Only a 

 small number of these animals is now living, and 

 of the few living ones only one kind has a stem in 

 the adult state, and this is the Pentacrinus caput-me- 

 dusce, of the West Indies, Figure 471. With the ex- 

 ception of this one, the living Crinoids much resemble 



Fig. 471. Living Crinoid. 



the Star-Fishes and Ophiurans ; but in the rocks, in 

 various parts of the United States and in other coun- 

 tries, the stemmed kinds are exceedingly abundant, 

 showing us that these animals lived in profusion in 

 the old ocean which ages ago covered a large part 



