Colony Morphology and Function

This chapter begins with a summary of the myriad of colony‐forms found in bryozoans, before reviewing the basic budding patterns responsible for these colony‐forms and the functional morphology of different colony‐forms. Descriptive classifications of colony‐forms in bryozoans vary from the simple to the complex, and the terminology employed from general and geometrical to specific and based on exemplar bryozoan genera. During their growth, branches of uniserial and narrowly multiserial (oligoserial) colonies often collide with pre‐existing branches. Collisions sometimes result in overgrowth of the older branch but more often the younger branch abuts the side of the older branch and its growth is halted. A broad division of bryozoans into encrusting, erect, and free‐living is helpful when describing the functional morphology of colony‐form. Lunulitiform bryozoans are capable of forming new colonies sexually as well as asexually