Look closely at any odd piece of kelp, and the little white patches you'll find are probably these guys, entire colonies of bryozoans, each little cell a cloned zooid. Like little vampires they rest in tiny coffins, bursting out to feed upon unsuspecting phytoplankton. Unlike vampires, but in keeping with the general invertebrate theme of "confuse the hell out of taxonomists," some bryozoan larvae look like translucent, fringed beanies (Top). These odd beings, called "cyphonautes," are the planktonic larvae of a few bryozoan genera, such as Membranipora membranacea (below).
sources: Hayward, Peter J., and John Stanley Ryland. Cheilostomatous Bryozoa: Notes for the Identification of British Species. Field Studies Council, 1998.
