Description
- Ophiura – Brittle Star
- Upper Ordovician Age
- Upper Ktaoua Formation
- Erfoud, Morocco North Africa
- The furthest distance between the arms is 4.46″
Brittle stars, serpent stars, or ophiuroids (from Latin ophiurus ‘brittle star’; from Ancient Greek ὄφις (óphis) ‘serpent’, and οὐρά (ourá) ‘tail’; referring to the serpent-like arms of the brittle star) are echinoderms in the class Ophiuroidea, closely related to starfish. They crawl across the sea floor using their flexible arms for locomotion. The ophiuroids generally have five long, slender, whip-like arms which may reach up to 60 cm (24 in) in length on the largest specimens. The ophiuroids diverged in the Early Ordovician, about 500 million years ago Ophiuroids can be found today in all of the major marine provinces, from the poles to the tropics
