DETAILS
- Discipline
NH: ZOOLOGY: INVERTEBRATES: BRYOZOANS (MOSS ANIMALS, SEA MATS)
- Scientific Name
Bugula flabellata, J V Thompson
- Common Name
Bryozoan
- Date Collected
4 January 1883
- Place Collected
Scotland, Angus, Montrose Bay, (place collected)
- Form
slide
- Description
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This sea mat or bryozoan (Bugula flabellata) was collected in Montrose Bay, Scotland in 1883. This specimen is important as it is a good example of 19th century collecting and presentation. It has been beautifully preserved and mounted on a microscope slide.
Bryozoans (from the Greek for ‘moss animal’) are colonial animals which are often mistaken for plants, when dried they can look like moss or lichens hence the name. They feed on plankton which is gathered from the water using a special organ called a lophophore - a crown of tentacles covered in fine hairs. They are in turn preyed upon by fish and some marine invertebrates. Although they can form structures themselves they are often found encrusted on seaweeds such as kelp. - ID Number
Z.2002.1.24
- Location
In storage
- Terms