Phylum: Bryozoa
The phylum Bryozoa appeared in the Ordovician Period and is still alive today. Sometimes called moss animals, they are aquatic, colonial animals with encrusting, branching, or fan-like growth. Bryozoans are more advanced than Cnidarians. They have separate digestive, nervous, and reproductive systems. They have no circulatory system, and their respiration is done through their tentacles. Reproduction is either asexual or sexual. Each individual animal in the colony has an outside membrane covering its body sac, called the zooecium. These zooecium are fused together to form a colony, which is what you collect when you pick up a Bryozoan fossil.
There are two classes in the Bryozoa phylum.
Class Stenolaemata (Ordovician to Recent)
This class is rich in the fossil record. All are marine animal that have calcified zooecia which are fused to each other. The zooecia is circular in shape. You can collect at least four genera of fossilized Bryozoa in this class in Kansas. They include Fenestrellina (lace-like), Rhombopora (twig-like), Fistulipora (moss-like), and Tabulipora.
There are two classes in the Bryozoa phylum.
Class Stenolaemata (Ordovician to Recent)
This class is rich in the fossil record. All are marine animal that have calcified zooecia which are fused to each other. The zooecia is circular in shape. You can collect at least four genera of fossilized Bryozoa in this class in Kansas. They include Fenestrellina (lace-like), Rhombopora (twig-like), Fistulipora (moss-like), and Tabulipora.
Class
Gymnolaemata (Ordovician to
Recent)
Most animals in this class are marine and their zooecia may be calcified or uncalcified. The shape of zooecia is elongated or boxlike at the opening. Not commonly found in Kansas.
Most animals in this class are marine and their zooecia may be calcified or uncalcified. The shape of zooecia is elongated or boxlike at the opening. Not commonly found in Kansas.