By Aradhana Amarnath
We are sea lilies
Resembling a cluster of chillies
We lived in the ocean
In the bottommost portion
We are known to be attractive
Though we are not so active.
Unlike a few others
We come in many colours
No, we are not flowers
Yet hear about our powers.
We are Eukaryotes
You better take notes.
Crinoids are our class
With cousins sea stars we surpass
Like them we can regenerate
Yet like flowers we have gametes
We stay rooted to the ocean bed
If you had chased us, we couldn’t have fled
We mean no harm
While moving our feather-like arms
To catch the food that floats by
So in hunger we don’t die.
Homes of many creatures are we
And so we are happy to be.
Surprised be not when I state
We are the origins of chordate
Our peduncle-like tubes
Formed in chordates, the neural tubes
A forest of us existed in history
Now look at our phylogenetic tree
On the ocean animals list
Only about 80 species of us exist.
Minus us, the study of evolution
Cannot have completion
We are a prehistoric treasure
Protecting us is your duty for sure.
By Aradhana Amarnath
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