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The common name "moss animals" is the literal meaning of "Bryozoa", ... The oldest species with a mineralized skeleton occurs in the Lower Ordovician. [1]
The skeleton of Fenestella colonies consists of stiff branches that are interconnected by narrower crossbars (or dissepiments). Between two and eight individuals of the colony inhabit each of the opposing front sides of the approximately rectangular openings between the branches (or fenestule) in one row, and the void they left when they died can be recognized as two rows of small rimmed pores ...
Fenestellidae is a family of bryozoans belonging to the order Fenestrida. The skeleton of its colonies consists of stiff branches that are interconnected by narrower crossbars (or dissepiments). The individuals of the colony (or zooids) inhabit one side of the branches in two parallel rows or two at the branch base and three or more rows ...
Archimedes is a genus of fenestrate bryozoans with a calcified skeleton of a delicate spiral-shaped mesh that was thickened near the axis into a massive corkscrew-shaped central structure. The most common remains are fragments of the mesh that are detached from the central structure, and these may not be identified other than by association ...
Among cyclostome bryozoans, the calcitic skeleton is usually lamellar, consisting of tabular or lath-like crystallites stacked like tiles at a low angle to the wall surface. Cheilostome bryozoans may exhibit a similar ultrastructure but more commonly have fibrous skeletons consisting of needle-like or bladed crystallites oriented almost ...
Phylactolaemata [1] is a class of the phylum Bryozoa whose members live only in freshwater environments. Like all bryozoans, they filter feed by means of an extensible "crown" of ciliated tentacles called a lophophore, and like nearly all bryozoans (the only known exception being Monobryozoon), they live in colonies, each of which consists of clones of the founding member.
The skeleton of Lichenalia was vesicular, meaning that it had a porous texture filled with numerous small chambers. The vesicular skeleton contained tunnels that appeared like ridges on the surface of the colony. The purpose of these tunnels is unknown, but they may have served as brooding chambers for the zooids.
The star-shaped holes (Catellocaula vallata) in this Upper Ordovician bryozoan may represent a tunicate preserved by bioimmuration in the bryozoan skeleton. Undisputed fossils of tunicates are rare. The best known and earliest unequivocally identified species is Shankouclava shankouense from the Lower Cambrian Maotianshan Shale at Shankou ...