Basket Star

The basket star is a cold-water relative of the brittle stars, found in Arctic, Antarctic, and deep-sea habitats, with five arms that branch and rebranch again and again into a tangle of fine, hooked tips. Its calcified skeleton is covered by a rubbery layer of skin, and it feeds by perching on an elevated surface such as a sponge and spreading its arms into a basket shape to snag drifting krill and other small crustaceans, which its tube feet then pass along to the mouth on the underside of its disc. Its scientific name, from the Greek for dreaded head, refers to its resemblance to the serpent-haired Gorgon of myth.