Hot dense matter were created at RHIC. Strange quark dynamics are both useful and important in identifying and understanding the properties of the state with partonic degree of freedom. In Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV, the value of strangeness phase space factor \gamma _s approaches 1 in the most central collisions. Nuclear modification factor (R_CP) and elliptic flow (v₂) of strange baryons ( \Lambda + \overline \Lambda ,  {\Xi }^-+ \overline {ITALIC \Xi }⁺, {\Omega}^-+ \overline {ITALIC \Omega }⁺ ) in the intermediate p_T region of 2--5 GeV/c are consistent among them and with those of protons, indicating similar quark dynamics in baryon formation between s quarks and light u, d quarks. It is consistent with a scenario of quark recombination/coalescence mechanism based on constituent quark degree of freedom in baryon formation from a nearly strange equilibrated state with high strange quark density in central Au + Au collisions at RHIC.

PACS numbers: 25.75.Dw