Merritt Island, Florida - Pleistocene ID needed

[old bones]

This was the only specimen of this kind that I found in Sacha's Merritt Island matrix. Is it a bryozoan, or a coral? It is so pretty... there are tiny little stars in it!

[Herb]

Coral, just a guess ,Solenastrea sp ?

[Al Dente]

It is a bryozoan. The star shaped structure is called a costal shield, only certain types have it. The orifice is located above the shield. The costal shield looks similar to coral septa on this specimen but corals have much larger corallites.

[old bones]

Coral, just a guess ,Solenastrea sp ?

Thanks for the guess, and for looking, Herb.

[old bones]

It is a bryozoan. The star shaped structure is called a costal shield, only certain types have it. The orifice is located above the shield. The costal shield looks similar to coral septa on this specimen but corals have much larger corallites.

Thank you, Eric. I have learned something new... Now I have to go read more about this.

[digit]

Yup. Great authoritative info from Al Dente as usual. The scale is much too small for coral polyps and the alignment of the little squarish zooid chambers signaled bryozoan colony for me as well. I've found a few bryo colony fragments in the micro-matrix I collected from Rattlesnake Creek.

Bryozoans (moss-animals) are interesting little colonial critters that can be found on our reefs today (usually on walls or underhangs). Many are encrusting but some make wondrous fan or spiral shaped colonies. My eyes are getting too old to see the fine details clearly any more while in water but the structure is easy to study on well-focused macro images.

Loving the diversity of finds from the Merritt Island Magical Mystery Micro-matrix.

Cheers.

-Ken