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Basket stars are just one kind of echinoderm that flourish on the sea floor. Basket stars sit on the bottom, or attached to tall sessile animals, with their flexible arms raise above them to catch floating and falling organic particles.
Echinoderms: Basket Star, Bradley's Sea Star, Brittle Star, California Sea Cucumber, Pencil Urchin, Pink Sea Star, Red Sea Urchin, Rose Star, Sand Dollars, Sea Apple, Sun Flower Star, Purple Sea Urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpurtus), ...
basket star (Gorgonocephalus eucnemis)
beaded anemone (Heteractis aurora)
bird's nest coral (Pocillopora damicornis)
blood shrimp (Lysmata debelius)
blue button polyps (Palythoa sp.)
blue linckia (Linckia laevigata) ...
In one group, the basket stars, they are repeatedly branched, forming a large mass of tentaclelike limbs. Each arm contains a radial canal (or one of its branches), but it does not contain body organs.
Class: Echinoidea (heart urchins, sand dollars, and sea urchins)
Class: Holothuroidea (sea cucumbers)
Class: Ophiuroidea (basket stars, brittlestars, and snake stars)
Class: Stelleroidea (star fishes) ...
The names "starfish" and "sea star" essentially refer to members of the Class Asteroidea. However, common usage frequently finds "starfish" and "sea star" also applied to ophiuroids which are correctly referred to as "brittle stars" or "basket stars".
 See also: Sea Cucumber, Sand Dollar, Jellyfish, Shrimp, Sea Star
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