Bryozoans gallery

Bryozoans are filter feeders living in more or less calcified colonies of encrusting, bushy or erect forms. They live mainly in marine environment, some species live in fresh water. Bryozoans are animals composed of an outer cuticle and squeleton, the cystid, and a fleshy body, the polypid. This one carries a crown of tentacles called lophophore which surrounds the mouth. The U-shaped intestine opens outside the lophophore. (from the Greek bryon = moss).