User:Chris the Paleontologist/Pseudocrinites

Pseudocrinites is an extinct genus of echinoderm from Europe and North America.

Description
Pseudocrinites was topped by a round, disk-like structure, or cup, the rim of which was formed by ambulacra ("thin-plated zones"). The cup itself was .5 to 1.25 in across. A segmented stem anchored the animal to the sea floor, where it lived as a suspension feeder, and the mouth was located at the top of the animal, opposite the stem (the center of the oral surface). Also located in the oral surface were the anus and the gonopore. Brachioles ("short, articulated appendages") can be observed in some particularly well-preserved specimens, the sockets of which reveal their location, arranged on either side of the ambulacra. "Slitlike openings", characteristic of the cystoids to which Peudocrinites belongs, were present, probably serving respiratory functions.