For a long time Saccocoma Agassiz, 1836 has been considered a pelagic crinoid, living within the Tethys and along its margins. Profound taphonomic and morphofunctional analyses of complete and disarticulated specimens of different species of this genus were carried out both in Central Apennines (Italy) and Frankenalb (Germany), within different facies. They allowed a quite different interpretation of its life style from the current one. In fact arm articulations, physiology, statistical analysis of the preburial final stage on thousands of specimens, some peculiar preservation cases (autotomised, crashed and collapsed specimens), supported a benthic life style for this crinoid. Saccocoma is here considered as an opportunistic mud-sticker and its "typical swimming plates" are reinterpreted as shields against detritus invasion.