Palaeos: Palaeos Bryozoa
Bryozoa Bryozoa

Bryozoa

Lophopus crystallinus

The freshwater bryozoan Lophopus crystallinus (Pallas, 1768)
Phylactolaemata > Plumatellida > Lophopodidae

image Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike, © Natural History Museum, London, via EOL


Bryozoa are a phylum of common, small, colonial, mostly marine but sometimnes freshwater, often encrusting, lophotrochozoans. Like brachiopods they possess a fringe of complex hollow feeding tentacles called a lophophore. Because of this they are generally grouped together with brachiopods and phoronids on morphological grounds, but molecular phylogeny tends to place them in a more basal position. Their position being for this reason unresolved and controversial , they are for the time being interpreted as general lophotrochozoa



images not loading? | error messages? | broken links? | suggestions? | criticism?

contact us

page MAK120108 (Creative Commons Attribution)