Flustrina

Flustrina
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous–Recent
Colony of Flustra foliacea (Flustridae)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Bryozoa
Class: Gymnolaemata
Order: Cheilostomatida
Suborder: Flustrina
Smitt, 1868
Synonyms

Cellulariomorpha
Neocheilostomina d'Hondt, 1985
(but see text)

Flustrina is a suborder under the order Cheilostomatida of gymnolaematan Bryozoa (sea mats).

The structure of the individual zooids is generally simple, a box-like chamber of calcium carbonate, the polypides reaching out through an uncalcified flexible frontal wall, often surrounded by numerous spines. Like in other gymnolaematans, their lophophore is protruded by muscles that pull on the frontal wall of the zooid.

In some treatments, the Flustrina are restricted to the superfamilies Calloporoidea and Flustroidea and ranked as infraorder alongside the Cellulariomorpha which contain the other three superfamilies. What here is considered the Fulstrina is then called the infraorder Neocheilostomina, and in a more radical variant also includes the Ascophora as another infraorder.[1]

The obsolete suborder Anasca previously included the members of this suborder before being deprecated.[2]

The families Fusicellariidae, Skyloniidae, Bicorniferidae, as well as the genera Hoeverella and Taeniocellaria are currently incertae sedis within the Flustrina.

  1. ^ BryoZone (2004): Taxa Hierarchy
  2. ^ "WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species - Anasca". www.marinespecies.org. Retrieved 2017-03-10.