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. At least, two genera are solitary ; all the rest are colonial.
Stenolaemata are a class of exclusively marine bryozoans. Stenolaemates originated and diversified in the Ordovician, and more than 600 species are still alive today. All extant (living) species are in the order Cyclostomatida, the third-largest order of living bryozoans.
Cheilostomatida, also called Cheilostomata, is an order of Bryozoa in the class Gymnolaemata.
Micropora is a genus of bryozoans in the family Microporidae. Colonies are always encrusting.
Archimedes is a genus of bryozoans belonging to the family Fenestellidae. The first use of the term "Archimedes" in relation to this genus was in 1838.
Stigmatella is an extinct genus of bryozoans in the family Heterotrypidae. It is known from the Ordovician period and found in the U.S. states of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Its colonies can form branches, lobes, or masses made from new layers encrusting upon older ones. In Kentucky, fossil remains of species Stigmatella personata that lived in underwater caves have been found, growing 'upside-down' on the cave ceiling.
Cristatella mucedo is a bryozoan in the family Cristatellidae, and the only species of the genus Cristatella. They are noted for their elongated shape and colorless, transparent bodies.
Paleontology in Kentucky refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Kentucky.
Ceramopora is an extinct genus of bryozoan of the family Ceramoporidae. It is one of the earliest genera of bryozoans. Its colonies were thin and discoid, with large autozooecia, abundant communication pores, lunaria, and monticules with depressions in their centers. It had no acanthostyles or diaphragms, distinguishing it from Acanthoceramoporella.
Cystodictya is an extinct genus of prehistoric bryozoans in the extinct family Cystodictyonidae.
Electra posidoniae is a species of bryozoan in the family Electridae. It is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea, and is commonly known as the Neptune-grass bryozoan because it is exclusively found growing on seagrasses, usually on Neptune grass, but occasionally on eelgrass.
Monticulipora is an extinct genus of Ordovician bryozoans belonging to the family Monticuliporidae. It was first named in 1849, and its description was published the following year by French paleontologist Alcide M. d'Orbigny, making it one of the earliest bryozoans to be recognized in science. It is still one of the most widespread fossil bryozoan genera. Though colonies that grow in masses made of multiple layers are characteristic of the genus, its colonies have varying shapes, able to be encrusting, branching, massive, or frond-like, and are covered in monticules (bumps). Most Monticulipora species have distinctively granular walls, and Monticulipora and can be distinguished from Homotrypa by the presence of axial diaphragms.
Arthrostylidae is an extinct family of bryozoans of the order Cryptostomida. Their colonies commonly possess articulated joints which provide flexibility.
Evactinopora is an extinct genus of Mississippian cystoporate bryozoans of the family Evactinoporidae. It formed free-living colonies that grew into a star-shaped form. It had several distinctive phases of colony growth: larvae would grow attached to hard surfaces before detaching, and the colony would then adapt to living on soft sediment, growing radial rays for stabilization during the juvenile growth stage and vertical vanes containing autozooecia in the adult stage.
Baculopora is an extinct genus of bryozoans of the family Acanthocladiidae. Its colonies are irregularly branching, with autozooecia in large oval apertures arranged in four to seven rows on each branch.
Leptotrypa is an extinct genus of bryozoans of the family Atactotoechidae that formed unifoliate encrusting colonies, growing on surfaces like the shells of brachiopods.
Prasopora is an extinct genus of bryozoan belonging to the family Monticuliporidae, known from the Middle Ordovician. Its colonies were disc-shaped or hemispherical, flat on bottom and convex on top, and had very abundant mesopores; in the case of the species P. insularis its zooecia were isolated from each other by the numerous mesopores surrounding them. It is very similar to the genus Monticulipora, and some bryozoan species have been assigned to both genera at different points in their study, but it is mostly distinguished by having more mesozooecia, rounder autozooecial apertures, relatively few acanthostyles and diaphragms and cystiphragms equally distributed in the autozooecia.
Cystomeson is an extinct genus of cystoporate bryozoan of the family Fistuliporidae, discovered in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It contains only one species, Cystomeson sierraensis. It lived during the Mississippian period. Its colonies had a branching shape and possessed a vesicular skeleton, a layer of calcitic mineral material on the surface of the colony that contained acanthopores. Instead of being hollow as in the similar genus Cheilotrypa, its colonies were solid, and its autozooecia derived from distinctive axial zooecia.
Ptilodictya is an extinct genus of bryozoan of the family Ptilodictyidae. It formed bifoliate branched colonies, with branches ranging from under 1 to 3 mm wide. Colonies' autozooecia are rectangular and autozooecial apertures are in the shape of rounded rectangles.
Arthrostyloecia is an extinct genus of bryozoan of the family Arthrostylidae, that lived in the Ordovician period. Its colonies are articulated, distinctively containing ball and socket joints. It contains a single species, Arthrostyloecia nitida.
