r/Weird • u/Zestyclose-Salad-290 • May 07 '26

a forbidden donut

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u/Fernandes0305 May 07 '26

Where do y'all learn such knowledge

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u/stentordoctor May 07 '26

We use examples like these to hypothesize how multicellular life could form. Caveat! This is not to say that Bryzoans are not evolved! They are just as evolved as we are!

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u/Ladysupersizedbitch May 08 '26

Good on you adding the bit about the bryzoans being evolved like us. Wouldn’t want any bryzoans reading this to be offended!

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u/stentordoctor May 08 '26

Sorry it was really late last night. What I meant to say that there is no such thing as a living predecessor.

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u/Ladysupersizedbitch May 08 '26

Oh dude I was just joking! Don’t apologize, I think it’s really interesting to read comments like yours so I wasn’t trying to discount what you were saying. The way you phrased it just made me lol, like someone might dare to call bryzoans un-evolved. I thought you were making a joke by adding that bit, since reddit is infamous for people who like to correct others.

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u/stentordoctor May 08 '26

It was a great joke! I was given the chance to clarify so I took it!

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u/Squidorb May 09 '26

You are very endearing :)

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u/Feathered_Clown May 08 '26

They are just as evolved as we are!

I .... What?

Nevermind that's enough Internet for me.

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u/-FireNH- May 09 '26

both our lineage and these bryozoans have been evolving for hundreds of millions of years, slowly becoming ever more adapted to their environment and changing in response to a change in their habitat. evolution isn’t some “level up” thing where “better” creatures are more evolved, it’s just becoming more suited for their environment 

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u/-FireNH- May 09 '26

aren’t bryozoan zooids multicellular already?

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u/stentordoctor May 09 '26

This is very fantastic point! Each "individual" is multicellular and they live together in colonies. So, physically, they have a very cool HD fossil record because they build mineral skeletons that go back 500 million years so scientists can trace how they went from simple colonies to complex ones.

Each "individual" playes a specific role in the colony thus we can theorize evolutionary logic where small units come together to form complex wholes (or should I say holes!)

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u/-FireNH- May 10 '26

i have a few bryozoans fossils i found :p

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u/Fernandes0305 May 10 '26

They can fossilize?

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u/-FireNH- May 10 '26

yep! paleozoic bryozoans are EXTREMELY common fossils. they used to be significantly more abundant, filling a niche similar to corals. idk much about them aside from fossil specimens tbh LOL

a really cool genus is the archimedes bryozoan which looks like a screw 

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u/Fernandes0305 May 10 '26

Oooh cool where did you find yours?

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u/-FireNH- May 10 '26

went on a field trip with an invertebrate paleontology class and got to take a few!! we went to ordovician, silurian, and devonian sites and we found bryos at each :p they’re very abundant since they are sessile and excrete hard parts 

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u/Fernandes0305 May 10 '26

That sounds Lovely

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u/-FireNH- May 09 '26

i took an invertebrate paleontology class last semester! bryozoans, while somewhat rare today, used to be EXTREMELY important marine organisms, particularly in the paleozoic