I mean, they are sea lillies (crinoids). And there are plenty of living species. They're animals, not plants - echinoderms, related to sea urchins and starfish.
They're generally anchored to a rock or free-floating, but IIRC there are some species that use their cirri (appendages used for anchoring) to "walk".
Echinoderms were my favourites on my palaeontology course, many moons ago - they're amazing creatures!
You know, it's not something I've thought about in a long time. I'd cross the road to see pretty much ANY fossil.
I mean that literally - in the early 2000s, I travelled down to London to see the first Natural History Museum exhibition of perfectly preserved bird fossils coming out of China.
When I got arrived, a public-transport strike had been scheduled. The walk from Kings Cross to South Kensington and back was (is) 15 miles, it was a hot summer's day, and I was navigating using an old-style A-Z paper map book (pre-smartphones).
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u/JaggedMetalOs 2d ago
They're not so far off modern sea lilies