As many as five or six different "phylogroups" have been identified, each having a circumpolar distribution, being sympatric (living alongside each other) and being adapted to a wide range of depths.

[4][6] The large depth range of this species may be because its non-feeding larvae have a yolk which makes them buoyant, giving them a wide dispersal potential but a limited ability to select where to settle.

[6] These crinoids inhabit either rocky areas or soft sediments and can move about using their cirri to grip the substrate, or swim by flapping their arms.

They are suspension feeders, choosing locations with strong currents and extending their arms, catching plankton and suspended particles floating past with the tube feet on the pinnules.

The tube feet are covered with sticky mucus that traps the food particles, which are then rolled into balls and moved along the ambulacral groove in the arms by cilia which propel them to the mouth.