Crinoid Shrimp

Crinoid Shrimp, possibly Laomenes pardus

Crinoids often have resident shrimp; maybe they always do, because the shrimp are usually hard to find: they are well-camouflaged and like to hide. This shrimp happened to be near the end of one arm of the crinoid, which happened to be extended. I am guessing that it is Laomenes pardus, the Leopard Crinoid Shrimp, although other species inhabit crinoids including members of the genus Periclimenes. I get the impression that lots of different shrimp species inhabit different niches, many of them symbiotic! I particularly like Crinoids, also known as Feather Stars, because my sister and I used to collect their fossilized stems, from the Ordovician Period, in Kentucky. Long-stemmed crinoids are still around today, 450 million years later, but at great depth: diving to see them requires specialized gases and decompression, or a submersible.