Skip to content
Login Register

#bryozoans

2 public questions tagged with this topic.

Animal Classification

Ectoprocts are typically

Ectoprocts predominantly colonial sessile metazoans producing distinctive moss-like encrustations on marine substrates such as rocks, shells, kelp holdfasts and ship hulls, inspiring common name moss animals. Entire colony zoarium comprises repeating modules called zooids each bearing retractable lophophore for filter feeding, connected by pores and funicular cords sharing nutrients, arising via budding from founding ancestrula. Most marine from intertidal to abyssal few freshwater phylactolaemates. Strictly colonial absence solitary forms contrasting with solitary phoronids. Coloniality facilitates division of labor, chemical defense via avicularia contributing to ecological success as biofouling and habitat-forming benthos in oceans and coastal zones.

Ref: Campbell Biology, 12th ed., Chapter 33: Bryozoa colonial sessile; Brusca & Brusca Chapter 23

View Details
Animal Classification

Ectoprocta are also known as

Ectoprocta designate dominant bryozoan assemblage now synonymous with Bryozoa sensu stricto after separation from Entoprocta based on anus position and coelom. Name reflects outside anus condition where anus lies outside tentacular crown. Colonial sessile aquatic filter feeders possessing box-like zooecia housing polymorphic zooids including feeding autozooids. Contemporary nomenclature retains Bryozoa for ectoprocts while Entoprocta elevated to separate phylum resolving confusion. Thus Ectoprocta and Bryozoa refer to same phylum sharing colonial lophophore organization, with approximately 6000 living and 15000 fossil species documented worldwide in marine and freshwater habitats extensively studied for biofouling and paleoecology.

Ref: Brusca & Brusca, Chapter 23: Ectoprocta Bryozoa; Campbell Biology, Chapter 33: Bryozoans

View Details