Meet the bryozoan, the mysterious, microscopic animal living in Ohio's bodies of water

If you see a funky-looking blob while you’re fishing in Ohio, don't look away. It could be a colony of numerous animals.

Invertebrates in this colony, known as the bryozoan or "moss animals," reside in the eastern parts of the country in its freshwater drainages, including Ohio, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources . These large bundles of phylum in the animal kingdom also inhabit oceans.

You're bound to find weird, cool things when you're out exploring! 🔍 Don Karas, part of our Ohio Department of Natural...

Posted by Ohio Department of Natural Resources on Sunday, October 6, 2024

Never heard of bryozoans? Here’s what to know.

What is a bryozoan?

According to the National History Museum , the bryozoan is a large phylum in the animal kingdom that can contain over 6,500 species of invertebrate animals, also known as zooids.

Each invertebrate is less than a millimeter long, but even though it is tiny, it has all of its organs.

All of these genetically identical zooids come together and form a colony known as the bryozoan, and they often specialize in reproductive or defensive roles. While they’re all together, these colonies attach themselves to rocks, shells, or seaweed and can be a food source for small reef animals.

What do bryozoans look like?

At first, from a distance, they probably look like polka-dotted blobs. But if you look closer, each invertebrate looks like a horseshoe or some particular shape with tentacles, and together, they look like bouquets of sponges or translucent flowers, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service .

If you go fishing in freshwater, you might be able to spot these blobs of tiny creatures.

Bryozoans are also fossils

Bryozoan colonies have been around for ages, with their fossils being found with over 15,000 species.

But what do bryozoan colonies look like as fossils? Though they’re not as sturdy as coral, their fossils tend to look like coral, with the shape of each invertebrate giving it a distinguishable pattern.

According to the ODNR , each bryozoan fossil appears as twig-shaped branching forms, fans, mounds, or encrusting sheets.

Are bryozoans and trilobites related?

Trilobites are marine animals related to arthropods like crabs and spiders, which are now extinct and are found as fossils, according to ODNR .

Trilobites often walked at the bottom of bodies of water, digging shallow burrows in the soft mud. The majority of trilobites were said to be predators.

Though they seem to be related to bryozoans, they’re actually not. Bryozoans are colonies of invertebrates, while trilobites were arthropods who roamed alone.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Meet the bryozoan, the mysterious, microscopic animal living in Ohio's bodies of water