Abstract Tube feet are extensions of the echinoderm water vascular system that play essential roles in feeding and ecology in living crinoids. However, only a single instance of tube foot preservation has been described across the 485-million-year fossil record of crinoids, which limits our understanding of soft-tissue morphology and functional ecology within this major clade of echinoderms. Here, we report on the earliest example of tube feet preserved in the crinoid Dendrocrinus simcoensis fro