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Bryozoans

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A scanned page of colorful illustrations of bryozoans

A bryozoa colony that is yellow with thin, wavy branches and a black background behind it

© Hans Hillewaert / CC BY-SA 4.0

Modern Day Bryozoans

 Bryozoans are sometimes confused with coral because their skeletons look similar. Both organisms live in colonial groups, but they are not related.

In the Museum Collections

View specimen list here.

Total bryozoa specimens: 261

Total identified species: 27

Specimens from Arkansas: 181

Identified species from Arkansas: 2

Fossil Record

 Bryozoans first appear in the fossil record in the Ordovician (485.4 – 443.8 million years ago). Approximately 15,000 fossil species have been discovered so far.

Bryozoans fossil
Bryozoans fossil
Bryozoans fossil
Arkansas map indicating Clark Co

Bryozoans (UA Museum), Saratoga Chalk Formation (Clark County, AR), Upper Cretaceous (100.5 – 66 million YA). Map indicates which county the specimens were found.

Image Credits:

  • Haechkel, Ernst. Kunstformen der Natur (1904), plate 23: Bryozoa. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.
  • Hillewaert, Hans. Flustra foliacea, Hornwrack from the Belgian coastal waters. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.
  • Oberg, Danielle. Arkansas map.
  • Oberg, Danielle. U of A Museum paleontological specimens.