Moss Animal Muscles
This neon marvel highlights the muscles of a developing aquatic invertebrate known as a moss animal, also known as a bryozoan – a member of the phylum Bryozoa. The organism gets its common name from the fact that the adults live in large colonies that cover underwater surfaces, resembling moss on a rock. However, bryozoan larvae, like the one shown here, are free-swimming.
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DownloadMoss Animal Muscles
This neon marvel highlights the muscles of a developing aquatic invertebrate known as a moss animal, also known as a bryozoan – a member of the phylum Bryozoa. The organism gets its common name from the fact that the adults live in large colonies that cover underwater surfaces, resembling moss on a rock. However, bryozoan larvae, like the one shown here, are free-swimming.
What am I looking at?
This is a depth-coded image of a developing bryozoan. The larva pictured here was stained for a protein called actin, which is highly concentrated in muscle fibers. The colors you see represent the distance each muscle fiber is from the viewer – with warm colors, such as red and yellow (1), being closer and cool colors, such as blue and purple (2), being farther away.
Biology in the background
These are tiny invertebrates that live underwater. They group together to form moss-like coatings on rocks, plants, and other underwater surfaces. They are so-called filter feeders, using fan-like structures to sweep the water and collect small plants and animals that they then bring to their mouth and ingest. Most Bryozoa species are found in temperate and tropical waters. However, a few species have been found in deep-sea trenches near cold-water vents and some have been found in the frigid waters around the poles.
A single Bryozoa organism is typically around half a millimeter long, or roughly 6.5 times the width of a human hair. However, bryozoan colonies can grow as big as a meter wide (about three feet).
Technique
This image was created using confocal microscopy.
Bruno C. Velluntini, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics