Marshall Islands Entoprocts (Entoprocta)

This page links to photos of small mostly colonial animals called Entoprocts. Entoprocts are generally considered to belong to their own animal phylum, Entoprocta, although they are at times considered to belong to Bryozoa along with the superficially similar Ectoprocta. Both Ectoprocts and Entoprocts have similar tiny goblet-shaped zooids, but in the former the anus is situated outside the ring of tentacles ("ecto") while in the latter it is within the ring ("ento") along with the mouth. The Entoprocts tend to live on the surfaces of some sponges or tunicates, giving the substrate a "fuzzy" appearance. We did not specifically document the Entoprocts in the Marshalls; the photos presented via the thumbnail link below were generally just a by-product of photographing a sponge, tunicate or certain genus of nudibranch (Trapania), which feed on Entoprocts. We have no specific identifications.


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