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- Title
Colony-Substratum Relations in Scrupocellariidae (Bryozoa, Cheilostomata).
- Authors
SILÉN, LARS
- Abstract
In the Bryozoa in general the colony is attached by means of the primary zooid, the ancestrula, which is permanently cemented to the substratum. The attachment is brought about, in the marine bryozoans, by the larva everting its interior sac into a basal adhesive disc secreting a thin layer of hardening mucus. In Scrupocellaria reptans no adhesive disc was found. The metamorphosing larva is fixed to the substratum by a column of loose, sticky secretion. This primary fixation is ephemeral and replaced by a secondary, permanent fixation by one pair of rootlets. Thus, the ancestrula body proper and the colony arising from it become permanently free from the substratum but anchored to it by rootlets, the primary pair and series of secondary rootlets. This unique and certainly secondarily evolved type of attachment is apparently realized in the Scrupocellariidae in general, to a more or less perfect degree. It appears as one of several possible models to meet efficiently with environmental disturbances.
- Publication
Zoologica Scripta, 1980, Vol 9, Issue 1-4, p211
- ISSN
0300-3256
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1463-6409.1980.tb00664.x