The Lophophorates and other

"Oddball" Phyla

They might seem odd, but they are

anything but uncommon!

 

1. The Lophophorates include:

  • Phylum Phoronida
    (sort of worm-like - https://images.app.goo.gl/uWTU7v9idtRgeis79 and https://images.app.goo.gl/RW6QRiEDWEdxGZVVA - with a lophophore - https://images.app.goo.gl/j5eCb3GyJ9zZ1fRS8 )
  • Phylum Bryozoa (a.k.a Ectoprocta)


  • Phylum Brachiopoda

    • 2. Phylum Bryozoa (name means "moss animals") - also called Ectoprocta:

  • Not very familiar to most people, but a major animal phylum!

  • ~ 4000 living species, many are VERY common

  • Most species marine, but some common freshwater species as well

  • Colonial, diverse colony forms, including
  • encrusting

    • Image source: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/rs/index.htm

  • hard (calcareous) and branching (the rock underlying the Everglades in Florida is mostly fossilized staghorn bryozoan skeletons).

  • flexible, branching, plant-like:

    •  

     Photos of Plumatella, a common freshwater bryozoan that sometimes shows up in aquaria. This species has the the sort of moss-like growth form Phylum is named after.

     

    Photos scanned from "Aquarium Highlights", by William Innes, Innes Publishing Company, Philadelphia. 1951

    		 

     

    Also see: http://web.archive.org/web/20001209142300/www.gis.net/~dmiller/bryozoa.html for information on another freshwater Bryozoan

     

  • Colonies and zooids often superficially resemble cnidarians, BUT
  • Bryozoans much more complex
  • :

    • Diagram of zooid:

    For example: https://images.app.goo.gl/KWKuwTjob3gHafDj7

    Electron microscope views of bryozoan colony (zooids retracted): https://www.google.com/search?q=bryozoan+electron+microscope&safe=active&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS704US705&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjMzsvUt5bmAhUQQK0KHeqxA1oQ_AUoAXoECA8QAw&biw=1387&bih=766

    Photo of bryozoan colony, showing extreme regularity in arrangement of zooids that is typical of the bryozoans: https://images.app.goo.gl/TowMKKRirrEowK1A6

    Information on an introduced bryozoan that is encrsting and harming Kelp: http://www.bowdoin.edu/~mpratt/invasives.html, and photo of the introduced bryozoan: https://images.app.goo.gl/gaba744N29FSiUJN9

    Fossil bryozoans - here is a fossil brozoan from near the Mississippi River in Minneapolis: https://images.app.goo.gl/wgNPdFoW8behLtx57

     

     

    Here is a collection of videos of live bryozoans in action:

    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sf2yf9a-VkULoJMi-U9EJXhxyqDCQC4p

    3. Phylum Brachiopoda - the Brachiopods, or Lamp Shells

  • Brachiopods have SUPERFICIAL resemblance to bivalve molluscs (e.g. clams), BUT.....

  • Valves (shells) enclose animal dorsally and ventrally instead of laterally

  • Ventral valve normally larger than dorsal and usually attached to substrate
    (but some species have stalk and burrow in sand:
    see https://images.app.goo.gl/18vA4a9Pdvd8NsY2A).

  • Brachiopods have lophophores (very different from gills of a clam), like larger version of what bryozoans have:

    • For internal structure see: https://images.app.goo.gl/DvwodmuFTcz3feEMA

    ALSO: http:brachiopodamm.html (has photo of insides, showing lophophore)

  • All species marine, most living species in cold water. Very common animals in some areas.
  • Only about 280 living species, but used to be a MAJOR animal phylum, with 30,000 species in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic!
  • Brachiopod fossils are VERY common, and fossil brachiopods can be found in the rocks in the nearby Mississippi River gorge.

    A short walk from campus there are rocks that look like this: https://images.app.goo.gl/E5UQcj5sJYZETyXd9

    • 4. Other "oddball" phyla include:

  • Phylum Nemertea (proboscis worms)
  • Phylum Sipuncula (peanut worms)
  • Phylum Pogonophora See: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/annelida/pogonophora.html
  • Others as well that I won't list here!
  • See http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/phyla/lophotrochozoa.html for a sampling of some of these phyla
  • Note: Though most folks have never heard of them, none of these "oddball" phyla are rare!
    •

    An optional reading on the bryozoans and sipunculids: http://web.archive.org/web/20010210235035/http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm/1997/dec/wb/default.asp

    And an additional even nicer article on the bryozoans (at least go to this and look at the pictures): http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/rs/index.htm