Ernst Haeckel, Adolf Giltsch
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Flustra. / Bryozoa. Moostiere.

Lithograph by Ernst Haeckel and Adolf Giltsch

Plate 33 from Kunstformen der Natur.
Bryozoa: Also known as Polyzoa; moss animals

Where was this made?:

Illustrations of this plate present, with high magnification, the delicate cases of Bryozoa. The living animalcules that build and inhabit these solid, calcified cases are not shown here, but on plate 23 (Cristatella). Their size amounts to only one ore few millimeters, many are still smaller. While the tender Vermalia of this varied subclass have the same, polyp-like shape in most cases (plate 23, Fig. 6) forms of the cases and lime shells produced by them are most manifold; about 3000 species are to be distinguished; about one third of these living, two thirds extinct and petrified. The bigger part of these species lives in the sea, just a few in freshwater. Almost all Bryozoa are convivial with many individual animals (Personae) being united in one colony or Cormus. All individuals of a colony are connected directly and use common alimentation, similar to the Personae of the polyp colonies. Each persona forms a corneous or calcareous chamber (or so-called cell) in which it can retreat. Numerous chambers (usually thousands in a colony) are at times arranged in horizontal rows alongside each other, at times linked with each other in a chain; in the former case the colonies have leaves or crusts that either grow freely (fig. 16) or coat stones, sea plants and other objects like a bark (fig. 7); in the latter case the colonies usually form small trees or bushes that branch off richly. In many Bryozona the individual Personae of the colony take different forms according to the different tasks they perform (like in polyps and Siphonophorae); thus, in between fully developed, sexually mature Personae one frequently finds other individuals that have neither gut nor sexual organs but work as grasping and groping organs; they may have the form of swinging shafts (Vibracula) or of bird heads with flexible lower beaks (Avicularia, fig. 6, 14 and 15).

Translation of the original German introduction by Ernst Haeckel:

Phylum of Vermalia (Wurmtiere); - class of Prosopygia (Buschwürmer); - subclass of Bryozoa (Moostiere); - subclass of Stelmatopoda (Kranzwirbler); - order of Cheilostomata (Lippenmündige).

Translation by VR Translators Bangalore

This is one of the 100 pop science biology illustrations that were published from 1899 – 1904 in Leipzig by Ernst Haeckel through Verlag des Bibliographischen Instituts.

We've scanned the original lithography at 1200dpi on the Epson A3 scanner of A3 scanner huren. You can download a 400dpi JPEG here.