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Moss Animal — printable fact sheet
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Moss Animal
Cristatella mucedo
The moss animal, also known as Cristatella mucedo, is a freshwater bryozoan that forms gelatinous, moss-like colonies attached to submerged surfaces. These colonial invertebrates consist of hundreds to thousands of tiny zooids working together to filter microscopic food particle…
Did you know?
- Cristatella mucedo colonies can regenerate from just a small fragment, allowing them to recover quickly from damage.
- Moss animals are not plants, despite their name—they are colonial animals related to other bryozoans. Entire colonies can move very slowly, a rare behavior among colonial invertebrates. In winter, they survive as tiny dormant statoblasts that can withstand freezing and drying.
What I learned
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