Bryozoans - Mississippian Period - Archimedes with Arms, in Matrix 1.jpg
Archimedes with fronds, in Matrix
SITE LOCATION: Chesterian Zone of the Bangor Limestone Formation, northern Alabama.
TIME PERIOD: Mississippian Period (ca 350,000,000 yrs old)
Data: The Archimedes is also termed moss animal, the Bryozoans are colonial animals that live as filter feeders, filtering nutrition from food through it's fenestrae, a screen-like structure that went around the axis of its screw-like central structure seen here. The Bryzoan Archimedes is named after its resemblance to Archimedes’ screw, a device invented by the famous Greek mathematician, engineer, and inventor to raise water above grade. Specimens in which the mesh remains attached to the central structure are rare. Like other bryozoans, Archimedes forms colonies, and like other fenestrates, the individuals (or zooids) lived on one side of the mesh, and can be recognized for the two rows of equally distanced rimmed pores. Inside the branches, neighbouring individuals were in contact through small canals. Bryozoans are stationary epifaunal suspension feeders. The majority of fossils of this genus are distributed throughout Europe and North America, but they have also been found in sediments of Afghanistan, Canada, Russia, and Australia.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Bryozoa
Class: Stenolaemata
Order: †Fenestrida
Family: †Fenestellidae
Genus: †Archimedes
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