The Crinoidea, a class of marine echinoderms, have long captivated palaeontologists as one of the most enduring and diverse components of the marine fossil record. Their evolutionary history spans ...

Three Endoxocrinus maclearanus flank a purple sea fan with a snake star at 2000 ft depth in the Bahamas. Image courtesy Bioluminescence 2009 Expedition, NOAA/OER If you didn’t get a chance to follow ...

The ocean floor is home to a menagerie of odd and peculiar creatures. Now, armed with a remote controlled vehicle, researchers in the South China Sea have discovered another. During surveys from the ...

Nature abounds with examples of evolutionary arms races. Certain marine snails, for example, evolved thick shells and spines to avoid be eaten, but crabs and fish foiled the snails by developing shell ...

In present-day ecology, the removal or addition of a predator in an ecosystem can produce dramatic changes in the population of prey species. For the first time, scientists have observed the same ...

Burlington's famous fossil may soon get statewide recognition if the Legislature approves a proposal by Democrats to put the crinoid on par with Iowa's goldfinch, rose, geode and oak tree. Seven ...

The pebbles are prettier on the other side of Lake Michigan. Even amateur beachcombers know that the Dunes-area shoreline of Indiana and Michigan yields better rocks than Chicago’s gravelly man-made ...