Recently, a research team in the Southern Ocean region discovered a new group of marine creatures called Promachocrinus, also known as Antarctic feather stars. Among them, they are especially attracted to Promachocrinus fragarius – a species of feathered star with up to 20 “arms”.
What do Antarctic strawberry feathers look like?
According to the announcement of the American research team, Promachocrinus is a large group of organisms belonging to the genus Crinoids (sea lilies) usually distributed at depths from 65m to about 1.2km throughout the Southern Ocean. The reason the feather star Promachocrinus fragarius gets the most attention is because it possesses twice the number of “arms” compared to other species of the same family that only have about 10 arms.
Because of its appearance and structure similar to a strawberry, they named Promachocrinus fragarius strawberry or the full name is Antarctic strawberry feather star.
In fact, the strawberry feather star’s 20 “arms” are branches that can be purple or dark red that come from the center of their body. Therefore, in general, the appearance of this crinoid is similar to a triangle with the characteristic being that the upper part is wide and tapered, and the lower part is round.
Because of this somewhat strange appearance, the Antarctic strawberry feather star has been compared to a creature from another planet, typically they are often compared to a monster called Facehugger . stalker) in the 1979 film Alien.
Strawberry feather stars have up to 20 arms.
The beautiful swimming figure of the Antarctic strawberry feather star
In the process of monitoring the activities of this crinoid, biologists have noticed that they are marine creatures with a very special way of moving. But because Antarctic starlings often spend most of their lives residing on rocks and coral reefs by clinging to them, recording their beautiful swimming appearance is not very easy. profit.
Although they don’t like to move, the rare times they swim in the ocean of Antarctic strawberry feather stars make anyone who sees them swoon. The reason is not just because the sight is difficult to see, but because their arms really “shine” by moving gracefully and rhythmically in the deep sea, reminding us of the performance of a dancer. Many marine biology experts must admit that the dance of Promachocrinus fragarius has really fascinated them.
Not only attracting attention with their skillful dancing skills, Antarctic strawberry feather stars also have another interesting ability, which is that they can regenerate limbs infinitely. Biologist Angela Stevenson has explained that this process is the key to helping this crinoid survive for more than 200 million years.
Their arms really “shine” by moving gracefully and rhythmically. Photo: doisong.trithuccuocsong.vn
It is a creature with an ancient origin, but observations from the special body shape and DNA sample analysis of the Antarctic strawberry feather star have shown that this is a completely new species.
This result is truly an extremely interesting discovery about crinoids in general as well as promoting more research activities on Promachocrinus fragarius in particular to supplement diverse information about creatures that appear to come from this another planet.
