An Orange Sea Lily? Is that an orange lily under-water? The name Orange Sea Lily can confuse some people at first. But not only can their name catch you off guard, but so can this: Sea Lilies are actually marine animals! The Orange Sea Lily is the common name of Nemaster Rubiginosa; which is the Latin name for it. Like all Echinodermata, its body structure is a radial symmetry. The main body of a Sea Lily is made up of a central cone and radial arms with side branches.

 

They have 20-35 arms that are 4-8 inches long. The arms are bright orange with a black stripe along the top of each arm. Nemaster Rubiginosa lives in the western part of the Atlantic Ocean from Florida to Brazil. They do well in this area because of the warm water. They live in fairly shallow water, from about 60-300 meters, attached to hard surfaces.

 

Orange Sea Lilies hide their crown during the day with only the arms and branches showing. The entire body might come out at night. Nemaster Rubiginosa eats plankton through the radial feeding posture and by using the water-vascular groves that are found on the feathery arms and are transported to the mouth. These sea lilies are not considered threatened, endangered, have any known importance to humans, or have any known predators. Orange Sea Lilies reproduce sexually.

 

Author: Isabela D

Published: 02/2008

 

Sources:

"Nemaster Rubiginosa-Taxonomy." Zipcodezoo.Com. 16 Feb. 2008. BayScience Foundation, Inc. 18 Feb. 2008 . "Sea Lilies and Feather Stars: Crinoidea - Orange Sea Lily." Animals.Jrank.Org. 2008. Net Industries. 28 Jan. 2008 . "Sea Lilies." Ask.Com. 14 Feb. 2008 . "Sea Lily." The Columbia Encyclopedia, the Sixth Edition. 2007. 13 Feb. 2008 .

 

Photo Credit: http://www.world-science.net/images/crinoid-noaa.JPG