Brittle Stars and Basket Stars (Ophiuroidea)

Ophiuroids are a large group of more than 1600 species of echinoderms that includes the brittle stars and the basket stars. Brittle stars usually have five long, flexible arms and a central, armored, disk-shaped body that is clearly demarcated from the arms, and they move fairly rapidly by wriggling the arms instead of crawling on tube feet. Basket stars are built the same way but are usually larger, with arms that are very highly forked and branched. Ophiuroids live from the Arctic and Antarctic to the tropics, and are dominant in many parts of the deep sea. Most are scavengers and detritus feeders, while some basket stars filter plankton with their arms.