''Pentremites'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

blastoid Blastoids (class Blastoidea) are an extinct type of stemmed echinoderm, often referred to as sea buds. They first appear, along with many other echinoderm classes, in the Ordovician period, and reached their greatest diversity in the Mississi ...

echinoderm An echinoderm () is any member of the phylum Echinodermata (). The adults are recognisable by their (usually five-point) radial symmetry, and include starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea cucumbers, as well as the sea ...

belonging to the family Pentremitidae.

Description

These stalked echinoderms averaged a height of about but occasionally ranged up to about 3 times that size. They, like other blastoids, superficially resemble their distant relatives, the crinoids or ''sea lilies'', having a near-identical,

planktivorous A planktivore is an aquatic organism that feeds on planktonic food, including zooplankton and phytoplankton. Planktivorous organisms encompass a range of some of the planet's smallest to largest multicellular animals in both the present day and ...

lifestyle living on the sea floor attached by a stalk. As with all other blastoids, species of ''Pentremites'' trapped food floating in the currents by means of tentacle-like appendages.Museum of Victoria
/ref> ''Pentremites'' species lived in the early to middle

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...

, from 360.7 to 314.6 Ma. Its

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s are known from

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

References

* ''Fossils'' (Smithsonian Handbooks) by David Ward (Page 190) Blastozoa genera Carboniferous echinoderms of North America Fossils of Georgia (U.S. state) Paleozoic life of Alberta Paleozoic life of the Northwest Territories Paleozoic life of Yukon {{paleo-echinoderm-stub