The walking flower

Video - quicktime needed

The stalked crinoid spends most of its time sitting and catching food with the flowerlike wheel of feathery arms that have earned it and its relatives the nickname sea lilies. Scientists had known for decades that stalked crinoids sometimes move—but barely. They had been clocked at speeds no greater than 0.6 meter per hour.

Now, however, a video from a submersible dive off Grand Bahama Island reveals a speed demon, says Tomasz Baumiller of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

"People were speechless," says William I. Ausich of Ohio State University in Columbus.
www.sciencenews.org...

so it isnt ACTUALLY a flower

it is very interesting though - that a type of animal that was previously thought of as almost sessile can actually move at speeds over 200 times previously observed

CREEPY! Literally, I mean LITERALLY. How cool is that? It just shows how very little we actually know about the fantastic world of creatures right here on our wee li'l planet.

Thank you very much for sharing that!

Wow, truly mind blowing. It looks like a giant walking daisy. Although, if it isn't a flower, then what is the stem-like thing attached to it?
Is it like the stems that are attached to the bottoms of jelly fish?
I suppose any marine biologist can answer my question.

Pretty neat! Here's a link for more information on them if anyone is interested: Wikipedia article

Its a sea star.

[edit on 23/10/05 by Thain Esh Kelch]

I must say that is quite strange and also I must congratulate the person who found it on finding a real life TRIFFID...!!!

But seriously, that is weird.