Adeonellopsis incisa
Adeonellopsis incisa
Summary
Adeonellopsis incisa was an erect colonial bryozoan composed of hundreds of minute filter-feeding zooids. Each zooid occupied its own calcified chamber while remaining physiologically integrated into the colony, allowing the colony to exploit suspended food above the muddy sea floor.
The colony probably required a firm object for attachment, such as shell or driftwood. That fits the wider London Clay pattern in which rare bryozoans are associated with debris accumulations around large wood fragments, hard islands of substrate within an otherwise soft-bottom environment.
Quick Identification
Look for: an erect calcified colony fragment with numerous tiny zooid openings arranged in regular series; examine the apertures, zooid boundaries and any specialised structures under magnification rather than relying on branch shape alone.
Diagnostic Features
- Colony erect and rigidly calcified.
- Zooids arranged in regular rows over both faces or surfaces of the colony fragment.
- Zooid boundaries are distinct when preservation is good.
- Apertural morphology and associated specialised zooids provide the main species-level characters.
- Worn or recrystallised fragments lacking zooid detail cannot be separated reliably from related Adeonellopsis material.
Fossil Details
Similar Species
Recorded Fossil Sites
No fossil-site occurrences have yet been recorded for this species.
References
- Taylor, P. D. (2022). The contributions to bryozoology of J. W. Gregory (1864–1932). Bryozoan literature / Natural History Museum repository View reference