Howdy, I just wanted to tell you a little about an itty bittty creature I found in one of my samples.
Enjoy!
Here we have a colony of Bryozoans, also known as moss animals. They are one of the oldest living species on the planet. These micro-aquatic invertebrates are typically found in marine systems, however there are few species that live in fresh or brackish waters. Bryozoans are sessile colonial organisms. They settle on hard substrates such as rocks, sticks, or submerged plants. Bryozoans are filter feeders. Using their lophophore or "crown", the beating cilia attached to their tentacles create a current sending water flourishing with food particles towards the mouth. They consume a variety of plankton such as diatoms, green algae, and dinoflagellates. Bryozoans can reproduce sexually or asexually. They are typically hermaphroditic. They reproduce by emitting sperm into the water, while other individuals in the colony capture sperm with their tentacles to internally fertilize their ova. Some individuals emit ova as well, and are fertilized externally. One unique thing about these little guys is when conditions are unfavorable they produce "statoblasts". These are pretty much a sac of dormant cells. They can survive extremely harsh conditions such as extremely high temperatures. Production of statoblasts increases lineage survival if the mother colony is killed. You can actually see a few statoblasts here at the base of the colony. They get their nutrients from their parents guts.
