Feather stars are part of phylum Echinodermata (along with sea urchins, sea stars, brittle stars and sea cucumbers) and the class Crinoidea (which only includes feather stars & sea lilies). These animals have a long history, first appearing in the fossil record about 300 million years before the dinosaurs during the Cambrian period! They use their feathery fringed arms to capture plankton and other little bits of food that drift by them. Like sea stars, feather stars can regrow their limbs if lo