Flustrina
| Flustrina Temporal range: Early Cretaceous–Recent |
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| Colony of Flustra foliacea (Flustridae) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Bryozoa |
| Class: | Gymnolaemata |
| Order: | Cheilostomata |
| Suborder: |
Flustrina Smitt, 1868 |
| Synonyms | |
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Cellulariomorpha |
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Cellulariomorpha
Neocheilostomina d'Hondt, 1985
(but see text)
Flustrina is a suborder under the order Cheilostomata of gymnolaematan Bryozoa (sea mats). The structure of the individual zooids is generally simple, a box-like chamber of calcium carbonate, the polypides reaching out through an uncalcified flexible frontal wall, often surrounded by numerous spines. Like in other gymnolaematans, their lophophore is protruded by muscles that pull on the frontal wall of the zooid.
In some treatments, the Flustrina are restricted to the superfamilies Calloporoidea and Flustroidea and ranked as infraorder alongside the Cellulariomorpha which contain the other three superfamilies. What here is considered the Fulstrina is then called the infraorder Neocheilostomina, and in a more radical variant also includes the Ascophora as another infraorder.
The families Fusicellariidae, Skyloniidae, Bicorniferidae, as well as the genera Hoeverella and Taeniocellaria are currently incertae sedis within the Flustrina.
The superfamilies and families (and notable genera) are listed in the presumed phylogenetic sequence:
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