---
title: Savigny's Feather Star (Heterometra savignii)
scientific_name: Heterometra savignii
common_name: Savigny's Feather Star
taxon: Sea lilies
published: 2026-08-07T11:51:31.113Z
updated: 2026-08-08T16:05:31.144Z
tags: Savigny's Feather Star, Heterometra savignii, Sea lilies, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/echinoderms/sea-lilies/savignys-feather-star
---

# Savigny's Feather Star (*Heterometra savignii*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Sea lilies (*Crinoidea*)
- **Size:** up to 20 cm
- **Depth:** 2-40 m
- **Diet:** Filter feeder
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Crevices and undercuts on reef slopes

## How to recognise it

- arms usually uniform dark brown to black
- only arm tips visible from a crevice by day
- arm span about 20 cm
- long stiff cirri gripping deep inside the hole

A feather star of about 20 cm (8 in) across, usually a uniform dark brown to black, and far more retiring than the species that perch in the open. Through the day it stays wedged in a crevice or under an overhang with nothing but arm tips protruding, which is how most divers see it - as a few dark feathery points at the edge of a hole.

After dark it works out to the lip and unfolds, filtering plankton from the current. Long stiff cirri underneath hold it in place against surge that would tear a looser grip free. The species was named for Jules-César Savigny, the naturalist of the French expedition to Egypt, whose plates of invertebrates from this coast were so precise that they are still consulted - and a good number of the animals in this catalogue carry names traceable to that survey. It is common here, with records concentrated in this sea and the Gulf of Aden.

## Also known as

- **English:** Savigny's Feather Star
- **Russian:** Перистая звезда Савиньи

## Scientific synonyms

- *Alecto savignii* Müller, 1841
- *Antedon savignii* (Müller, 1841)
- *Antedon savignyi* (Müller, 1841)
- *Comatula (Alecto) savignii* (Müller, 1841)
- *Comatula multiradiata* Audouin, 1817
- *Comatula savignyi* (Müller, 1841)

## Range

Oman, Persian Gulf, Red Sea

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/echinoderms/sea-lilies/savignys-feather-star)*
*Updated: August 8, 2026*