bryozoan colony
Clark found this weird piece of ..errr….uhhh…. well I really didn’t know what to call it for a few days. It feels hard like concrete but very light in weight and it’s about 2 inches long. I asked a lot of people and most thought it looked like a piece of worn coral or sedimentary rock… and it does… sort of. But it looks like it has worm holes, bits of shell and formed bubbles inside which seem fossilized or something so it was still a mystery.
Another view of piece of Bryozoa colony
Then…..Ta Da! Dr. Jose Leal, director of Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum, knew the answer. A piece of BRYONZOAN COLONY. He said “This is actually a worn piece of a bryozoan colony; bryozoans are colonial animals unrelated to corals, but which form superficially similar calcium carbonate structures (read more on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryozoa).” I clicked the link to read more on BRYOZOA and it sounds similar to SEA PORK (a zooid colony) with a little calcium carbonate added (for flavor- HA!).
Here’s another picture of pieces of bryozoan colonies by my blog buddy Carla Barone (shelling Queen of Little Hickory) who took the cool video of a live WHELK. She found quite a few pieces!
Bryozoan colony picture by Carla Barone
Thanks for letting us know what it is! I thought it was some type of coral when I found it by the lighthouse in July. It was one of my favorite finds this year and I loved reading all about it!
Thanks from me, too, for this great information on that piece. As I told Carla, I have a couple of these attached to twigs that I found on Pensacola Beach last year. I, too, thought it was some type of coral. You are so good about getting perfect information to solve these unusual identifications!!! And I do appreciate that there is someone who can help us with the answers!!!!! Best wishes, Dovie
Thanks for the info….now, I’ll have to search through my “hunks and chunks” baskets from Sanibel and see if I have any :- )
Very interesting…I think I have a few of those things too!
Don’t you just love solving a mystery like this one? It really feeds the imagination. I knew someone would figure it out. They are very interesting specimens…ain’t Mother Nature Mahvelous?
Thanks! What an interesting lesson! I love learning new things about what is being found on the beach!
Oh Yaya! Mother Nature IS Mahvelous with her “hunks and chunks” she leaves us for little mysteries to solve. ;)
Clicking on the photo reveals such beautiful texture.
Love the whelk too… the natural world is so amazing.
Peaceful day,
Julia~
Wow! so glad you figured out what it was…love figuring out mysteries like that.
I mentioned you and your blog in my post today about Autumn Travel to Captiva Island. http://www.sallyleebythesea.com/2010/09/autumn-travel-captiva-island-fl.html
Have a great day, Pam!
Marie