How is the brittle sea star related to humans?

Humans and brittle sea stars share a common ancestry, but diverged from each other several million years ago. They both ultimately belong to the animal kingdom and are part of the larger tree of life. However, there is no close evolutionary relationship between humans and brittle sea stars, as they belong to different phyla (namely Chordata and Echinodermata, respectively). As such, the nature of their relationship is limited to being distant relatives.