Here is Doryporella spathulifera, and this cheilostome bryozoan is definitely a weird one! In addition to the spines surrounding the orifice, it also has a flat spine shaped like a small garden spade below the orifice. This makes it easy to recognize this species when the colony is well preserved, but even if the spines have broken off it is possible to identify it.
The genus Doryporella itself is relatively species-poor with only four species, and is characterized, among other things, by the unique frontal shield that has a distinctive pattern.
Doryporella spathulifera is an Arctic species with a distribution that seems to extend from Europe to North America. It is found from a depth of about 20 meters to a depth of a couple of hundred meters, and prefers hard substrates such as rocks and shells. We have only found it in a few samples during our project, so it is probably not a very common species.
