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Article: Crawling sea lilies.(research report)
- Article from:
- The Science Teacher
- Article date:
- December 1, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 National Science Teachers Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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With their long stalks and feathery arms, marine animals known as sea lilies look a lot like their garden-variety namesakes. Perhaps because of that resemblance, scientists had always assumed that sea lilies stayed rooted instead of moving around. But videos taken from a submersible research vessel at a depth of 430 m near Grand Bahama Island reveal that some sea lilies can creep along the ocean floor, apparently to escape from sea urchins that prey upon them. The video and related studies help paint a bigger picture of the evolution and ecology of these deep-sea creatures and their predators.
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University of Michigan (UM) professor ...