---
title: Saw-toothed Feather Star (Oligometra serripinna)
scientific_name: Oligometra serripinna
common_name: Saw-toothed Feather Star
taxon: Sea lilies
published: 2026-08-07T11:51:31.116Z
updated: 2026-08-20T17:11:25.993Z
tags: Saw-toothed Feather Star, Oligometra serripinna, Sea lilies, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/echinoderms/sea-lilies/saw-toothed-feather-star
---

# Saw-toothed Feather Star (*Oligometra serripinna*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Sea lilies (*Crinoidea*)
- **Size:** up to 10 cm
- **Depth:** 1-30 m
- **Diet:** Filter feeder
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Perched on soft corals, sea whips and gorgonians

## How to recognise it

- small, arm span rarely over 10 cm
- ten slender arms only, far fewer than most feather stars
- usually clinging to a sea whip or soft coral, not to rock
- pale yellow, green or brown, often matching its perch

A small feather star with an arm span rarely over 10 cm (4 in) and only ten arms - a modest count in a group where thirty or more is ordinary, and the quickest way to pick it out. Color runs pale yellow, green or brown, usually close to whatever it is sitting on.

It does not perch on rock. This species clings to sea whips, gorgonians and soft corals, gripping the stem with its cirri and holding its arms into the flow above the reef surface, which puts it in faster water than a bottom-dwelling animal can reach. Feeding is the family method: particles stick to mucus, cilia move them down grooves to the mouth. A whip coral carrying half a dozen of these, each a different shade, is a common sight on current-swept slopes at night, and it repays a slow look - the same whips host gobies and shrimp that are found nowhere else.

## Also known as

- **English:** Sawtoothed Feather Star
- **French:** Comatule dents de scie, Comatule noire
- **Portuguese:** Lírio-do-mar-serra
- **Japanese:** ミナミトラフウミシダ
- **Chinese:** 鋸翅寡羽枝
- **Russian:** Пильчатая перистая звезда
- **KO:** 범무늬갯고사리

## Scientific synonyms

- *Antedon serripinna* Carpenter, 1881
- *Oligometra caledoniae* AH Clark, 1911
- *Oligometra chinensis* AH Clark, 1918
- *Oligometra concinna* AH Clark, 1912
- *Oligometra erinacea* (AH Clark, 1912)
- *Oligometra imbricata* AH Clark, 1908
- *Oligometra occidentalis* (AH Clark, 1911)
- *Oligometra pulchella* AH Clark, 1908
- *Oligometra serripinna caledoniae* (AH Clark, 1911)
- *Oligometra serripinna chinensis* (AH Clark, 1918)
- *Oligometra serripinna erinacea* AH Clark, 1912
- *Oligometra serripinna imbricata* (AH Clark, 1908)
- *Oligometra serripinna macrobrachius* AH Clark, 1936
- *Oligometra serripinna occidentalis* AH Clark, 1911
- *Oligometra serripinna serripinna* (Carpenter, 1881)

## Range

Eastern Africa & Madagascar, Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Seychelles

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/echinoderms/sea-lilies/saw-toothed-feather-star)*
*Updated: August 20, 2026*