What is Entoprocta?
Q: What is Entoprocta?
A: Entoprocta, also known as Kamptozoa, is a phylum of tiny sessile aquatic animals ranging from 0.1 to 7 millimetres (0.004 to 0.28 in) long.
Q: How are mature individuals shaped?
A: Mature individuals are goblet-shaped, on relatively long stalks.
Q: How do they feed?
A: They are filter-feeders, with a crown of tentacles whose cilia generate water currents towards the mouth. Both the mouth and anus lie inside the crown.
Q: Are there any differences between entoprocts and bryozoans?
A: The superficially similar Bryozoa (Ectoprocta) have the anus outside a 'crown' of hollow tentacles.
Q: Are all species marine?
A: Most families of entoprocts are colonial, and all but 2 of the 150 species are marine. A few solitary species can move slowly.
Q: How do they reproduce?
A: Some species eject unfertilized ova into the water while others keep their ova in brood chambers until they hatch, and some of these species use placenta-like organs to nourish the developing eggs. After hatching, the larvae swim for a short time and then settle on a surface where they metamorphose and rotate their gut by up to 180° so that the mouth and anus face upwards. Both colonial and solitary species also reproduce by cloning.
Q: When were fossils first identified with confidence?
A; Fossils of entoprocts are very rare and the earliest specimens that have been identified with confidence date from the Upper Jurassic
