Sea lilies - the most bizarre animals on the ocean floor

These strange and beautiful creatures are called Crinoids, or sea lilies. Dutch professional diver Els van den Eijnden captured these precious photos of these creatures in the sea near Bali.

It is very rare to see sea lilies swimming like this.

The sea crinoid has hairy, branch-like tentacles. It lives attached to coral reefs and is rarely seen swimming.

Crinoids belong to the echinoderms group, the same family as starfish and sea urchins. They use their feather-like proboscises to catch and suck up plankton.

There are about 600 species of sea lilies in the world.

For most of their lives, sea crinoids cling to rocks and coral reefs. Only in exceptional situations do they move from their habitat.

There are about 600 species of crinoids, and traces of them can be found in both deep and shallow seas and tropical coral reefs.

According to Discovery