Bryozoa are a phylum of simple, aquatic invertebrate animals, nearly all living in sedentary colonies. Typically about 0.5 millimetres long, they have a special feeding structure called a lophophore, a "crown" of tentacles used for filter feeding. Most marine bryozoans live in tropical waters, but a few are found in oceanic trenches and polar waters. The bryozoans are classified as the marine bryozoans (Stenolaemata), freshwater bryozoans (Phylactolaemata), and mostly-marine bryozoans (Gymnolaemata), a few members of which prefer brackish water. 5,869 living species are known. Originally all of the crown group Bryozoa were colonial, but as an adaptation to a mesopsammal life or to deep‐sea habitats, secondarily solitary forms have since evolved. Solitary species has been described in four genera; Aethozooides, Aethozoon, Franzenella and Monobryozoon). The latter having a statocyst‐like organ with a supposed excretory function.
The family Vampyrellidae is a subgroup of the order Vampyrellida within the supergroup Rhizaria. Based on molecular sequence data, the family currently comprises the genus Vampyrella, and maybe several other vampyrellid amoebae. The cells are naked and characterised by radiating, filose pseudopodia and an orange colouration of the main cell body.
Graptolites are a group of colonial animals, members of the subclass Graptolithina within the class Pterobranchia. These filter-feeding organisms are known chiefly from fossils found from the Middle Cambrian through the Lower Carboniferous (Mississippian). A possible early graptolite, Chaunograptus, is known from the Middle Cambrian. Recent analyses have favored the idea that the living pterobranch Rhabdopleura represents an extant graptolite which diverged from the rest of the group in the Cambrian.
Entoprocta, or Kamptozoa, is a phylum of mostly sessile aquatic animals, ranging from 0.1 to 7 millimetres long. Mature individuals are goblet-shaped, on relatively long stalks. They have a "crown" of solid tentacles whose cilia generate water currents that draw food particles towards the mouth, and both the mouth and anus lie inside the "crown". The superficially similar Bryozoa (Ectoprocta) have the anus outside a "crown" of hollow tentacles. Most families of entoprocts are colonial, and all but 2 of the 150 species are marine. A few solitary species can move slowly.
Cheilostomatida, also called Cheilostomata, is an order of Bryozoa in the class Gymnolaemata.
The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is an international center for research and education in biological and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution that was independent for most of its history, but became officially affiliated with the University of Chicago on July 1, 2013. It also collaborates with numerous other institutions.
Siphonophorae is an order within Hydrozoa, which is a class of marine organisms within the phylum Cnidaria. According to the World Register of Marine Species, the order contains 175 species described thus far.
The Doliolida are an order of small marine animals of the subphylum Tunicata. They are in the class Thaliacea, which also includes the salps and pyrosomes. The doliolid body is small, typically 1–2 mm long, and barrel-shaped; it features two wide siphons, one at the front and the other at the back end, and eight or nine circular muscle strands reminiscent of barrel bands.
Cyclostomatida, or cyclostomata, are an ancient order of stenolaemate bryozoans which first appeared in the Lower Ordovician. It consists of 7+ suborders, 59+ families, 373+ genera, and 666+ species. The cyclostome bryozoans were dominant in the Mesozoic; since that era, they have decreased. Currently, cyclostomes seldom constitute more than 20% of the species recorded in regional bryozoan faunas.
Vorticella convallaria is a species of ciliates. It is the type species of the genus Vorticella. It resembles V. campanula, but differs in being somewhat narrow in the anterior end and usually having no refractile granules in the endoplasm.
Praya dubia, the giant siphonophore, lives in the mesopelagic zone to bathypelagic zone at 700 m (2,300 ft) to 1,000 m (3,300 ft) below sea level. It has been found off the coasts around the world, from Iceland in the North Atlantic to Chile in the South Pacific.
Sappinia diploidea is a free-living amoeba species.
Parvilucifera is a genus of marine alveolates that behave as endoparasites of dinoflagellates. It was described in 1999 by biologists Fredrik Norén and Øjvind Moestrup, who identified the genus among collections of Dinophysis dinoflagellates off the coast of Sweden. Initially mistaken for products of sexual reproduction, the round bodies found within these collections were eventually recognized as sporangia, spherical structures that generate zoospores of a parasitic protist. This organism was later identified as P. infectans, the type species. The examination of this organism and its close genetic relationship to Perkinsus led to the creation of the Perkinsozoa phylum within the Alveolata group.
Perophora regina is a species of colonial sea squirt in the genus Perophora. It is native to the tropical western Atlantic Ocean where it is found growing on mangrove roots on the Belize Barrier Reef.
Cothurnia is a genus of freshwater and marine peritrichs in the family Vaginicolidae. It is characterised by living in a transparent tubular lorica. During the feeding or vegetative phase of its life cycle, Cothurnia attaches to submerged surfaces through a short stalk — mostly on the surfaces of fishes, crustaceans and aquatic plants. It is commonly studied for its epibiotic relationship with the host that it is attached to.
Zoothamnium niveum is a species of ciliate protozoan which forms feather-shaped colonies in marine coastal environments. The ciliates form a symbiosis with sulfur-oxidizing chemosynthetic bacteria of the species "Candidatus Thiobios zoothamnicoli", which live on the surface of the colonies and give them their unusual white color.
Zoothamnium is a genus of ciliate protozoan.
Opercularia is a genus of freshwater, colonial, sessiline peritrich ciliates. As consumers of free bacteria in the water, several species of Opercularia serve as important indicator organisms in the study of wastewater treatment. Operculariids can be distinguished from other sessile peritrichs by their prominent, non-contractile stalk; peristome without lip; and elongate, horseshoe-shaped macronucleus.
Lensia is a genus of hydrozoans belonging to the order Siphonoporae and the family Diphyidae. This genus is colonial and consists of many different types of highly specialized zooids. The genus Lensia was first established in 1932 by Dr. Arthur Knyvett Totton, who would also describe and add another 11 species during his career. As of March 2023, the genus consists of only 26 described and accepted species and an additional seven uncertain species, according to the World Register of Marine Species.
Walkeria uva is a species of colonial bryozoan in the order Ctenostomatida. It occurs on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, in the Baltic Sea, in the Mediterranean Sea and in the Indo-Pacific region.
