What is "basket star"

n. Any of a suborder of brittle stars, mostly with many-branched arms, that live in deep-sea habitats.

n. any starfish-like animal of the genera Euryale or Astrophyton or Gorgonocephalus having slender complexly branched interlacing arms radiating from a central disc [syn: basket fish]

Basket stars, sometimes referred to as a Shetland Argus , are a taxon of brittle stars. They are treated as a suborder Euryalina or order Euryalida. Many of them have characteristic repeatedly branched arms. They generally live in deep sea habitats. In the wild they may live up to 35 years. They weigh up to . Like other echinoderms, basket stars lack blood and achieve gas exchange via their water vascular system.

The basket stars are the largest ophiuroids with Gorgonocephalus stimpsoni measuring up to 70 cm in arm length with a disk diameter of 14 cm.