Here are some pictures of the bryozoan Tubulipora flabellaris. If you want to try out your “identifying bryozoans” skills on hard mode, try identifying bryozoans belonging to the genus Tubulipora!
This is a bryozoan genus where it can be very difficult to distinguish between the different species. The colonies can vary greatly depending on, for example, the type of substrate they grow on, so working with this genus can be both rewarding and frustrating experience. Fortunately, there are characters that can be used to identify the different species.
Some of the most important traits used to identify cyclostomatid bryozoans such as Tubulipora are the gonozooid and the ooeciostome (image nr. 2). The gonozooid is where the larvae develop, and they are released through the ooeciostome when they are fully developed. The morphology and placement of these traits are often genus and species-specific.
Tubulipora flabellaris differs from the other Tubulipora species with the combination of zooids in connate rows, zooids that are lightly calcified (and thus also transparent) and that the ooeciostome is a laterally compressed, narrow tube (see red marking in image 2), and is not directly connected to any zooid.