Leather Bryozoan (Flustrellidra corniculata)

Description: Leather bryozoan, sometimes called branched-spine bryozoan or spiny leather bryozoan, is a very unique creature. Bryozoans themselves are also sometimes called moss animals, since they can resemble moss. They are clusters of tiny aquatic invertebrates that live together and form a colony, typically staying sedentary. The leather bryozoan is a lighter brown color, and each colony makes up a flat hanging shape that resembles kelp. One will even find leather bryozoan colonies hanging amongst different kinds of long brown and red kelp in the rocky intertidal sometimes, especially near The Needles at Haystack Rock. 

Habitat: This species is found along the Pacific Coast from Alaska to central California as well us coastlines in Northern Europe.

Tide Pool Tidbits: 

• Bryozoans filter feed via a structure called a “lophophore” which looks like a ring of tentacles. However, each individual bryozoan in a colony is only about 0.5 millimeters long, so we cannot see these little lophophores with just our naked eyes. 

• Colonies of bryozoa can take on many different forms: some appear mossy, some look branchy, and some even look squishy like jelly.

Reference: Central Coast Biodiversity