Larvae party at Espegrend!

During our workshop at Espegrend, we collected some colonies of Membranipora membranacea. And when they were exposed to slightly warmer water after being indoors for a little while, something cool happened!

The zooids started releasing lots of larvae (the little things that fly around in the video)! M. membranacea may not have brood chambers like some other cheilostomes, but all bryozoans have a larval stage.

Eventually the larvae will find a suitable place to settle down and thus a bryozoan colony starts. Well, after the larva undergoes a weird transformation to become the first zooid (ancestrula)!

Video by Maria B. Grankvist