Colonial animals

Another photograph of a marine Bryozoan, possibly Flustra foliacea although I'm not sure. Bryozoans are tiny animals that belong  to an ancient and primitive Phylum of animals known formally as the Bryozoa or commonly as Moss Animals. They live in the sub-tidal zone of the ocean where they form bushy colonies of hundreds of individuals forming stiff brown or light grey fronds attached firmly to stones and shells by by an encrusting basal portion of the colony. They make their living by filtering out plankton from the water column.


The extra shows evidence of another colonial animal in which the individuals form a rather less intimate association with each other, the rook Corvus frugilegus. The members of a rook colony forage together, roost together and breed together, but they aren't joined at the hip so to speak. The photograph shows part of the breeding rookery at the edge of the main street in our village.