Beauty gets better with age, and these sea animals are mesmerizing proof.

Feather stars are a type of marine invertebrate with featherlike arms that radiate from a central body. They date back about 200 million years, says Tomasz K. Baumiller, a professor of paleontology at the University of Michigan.

“Feather stars are thought of as living fossils,” Baumiller says. “They have a tremendous diversity that traces its roots deep down in the geological past.”

These animals inhabit a broad geographical range, from the Equator to the poles, and from the shallow waters on top of reefs to the depths of the ocean. In particular, the western edge of the Pacific around Asia is a “cradle of diversity” for feather stars, Baumiller adds.

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