A study published in 2011 suggested that it should be renamed Bourgueticrinina and viewed as a suborder of Comatulida.

[2] Sea lilies are crinoids with a calyx and five pairs of feather-like arms standing on a long stalk which is retained throughout the animal's life.

These appendages are themselves formed of small ossicles called cirrals and the terminal one is often claw-like.

Bourgueticrinids first appeared in the fossil record during the Triassic period, although other crinoid groups, now extinct, originated in the Ordovician.

By the end of the Permian, crinoids were an abundant and very successful group and the columnals are plentiful in many fossiliferous limestone deposits.