Symbiosis of conulariids with trepostome bryozoans in the Upper Ordovician of Estonia (Baltica)

The trepostome bryozoans Diplotrypa abnormis, D. bicornis, D. petropolitana, Esthoniopora communis, E. subsphaerica, Mesotrypa excentrica, M. expressa, M. raritabulata, and Monotrypa jewensis have symbiotic associations with the conulariid Climacoconus bottnicus in the Upper Ordovician of Estonia. All bryoimmured conulariids are very small and oriented perpendicular (or nearly so) to the growth surface of the host trepostome colony. Muddy seafloors may have promoted this symbiosis between conulariids and bryozoans because the former required a hard substrate for attachment. It is possible that the numerous smaller specimens among endobiotic conulariids usually died as juveniles together with their bryozoan host, or alternatively, the smaller endobiotic conulariids may have been Lilliput forms of free-living conulariids that died at a mature age. Conulariid-trepostome associations were likely not a result of accidental intergrowth of two organisms. Additional protection against predators provided by the calcitic bryozoan skeleton may have been among the benefits for the conulariid symbionts. Usually trepostomes with conulariid symbionts do not contain other invertebrates, but in the Katian in some cases they also hosted Anoigmaichnus bioclaustrations. The exact type of symbiosis between trepostomes and conulariids remains unresolved, but most likely the associations were slightly parasitic or commensal. The available data suggest that bryozoans preferred cnidarians over the other invertebrates as symbionts.