Good! The crinoid fossil does look like the modern sea lily, although the sea lily in this photo has no stem. In fact, the two are closely related!

Ancient and modern crinoids (or sea lilies) have muscles, nerves, and a stomach, just like other animals. Why do they look like plants? So they can grip the ocean floor while spreading their arms to catch food. What a strange creature!

This fossil is more than 300 million years old! Crinoid fossils tell us something about life long ago, but they don't tell us much about their environment. For that, we need to find a piece of the sea floor itself!