English: Moss animals; Moss animacules; Sea mats.
Synonym: Polyzoa;
Ectoprocta.
Members: 8000 living species; many fossil forms.
Region: worldwide; tropical.
Habitat: marine, ± 50 freshwater; on all types of hard substrates like sand grains, rocks, shells, wood, blades of kelp, pipes and ships, on sediment; shallower water, some species at depths of 8200 m.
ZoologyAnimals; aquatic; invertebrata; tiny, about 0.5 millimetres long;
Social: living in colonies, from mm to meters in size; individuals assume different functions; autozooid individuals gather up the food; heterozooids individuals depend on them; kenozooids strengthen the colony; vibracula clean the colony; Only Monobryozoon ambulans does not form colonies.
Motion: sessile, some creeping, some moving between sand grains, one species floating.
Food: filter feeders with a retractable lophophore, tentacles lined with cilia.
Body: build stony skeletons of calcium carbonate, superficially similar to coral, some lack any calcification and instead have a mucilaginous structure.