Blastoids (sometimes called sea buds for their shape) have a long stalk with a head at the top. They went extinct about 260 million years ago (during the Permian), but they used to be abundant on Earth. Their heyday was during the Mississipian (about 350 million years ago). They lived anchored to rocks by their stalks, feeding by filtering small food from seawater. At the top of their head is a mouth, surrounded by grooves with tiny hairs for trapping food. The structure of their stalks and heads is what left a record of their existence. The stalk is made of stacked, calcified disks. The head is made of rows of tightly interlocking, calcified plates that often remain together in the fossil record. A set of holes in the top of head are evidence of the blastoid's unusual respiratory system. Folded structures (hydrospires) were used to extract oxygen from seawater that passed through the holes.