| Abstract: | The ultrastructure of the skeleton is described in six species of lichenoporid cyclostome bryozoans using field emission SEM. Both interior walls (vertical, interzooidal walls, and brood chamber roofs and floors) and exterior walls (basal walls) are initially secreted as tiny wedge-shaped crystallites without a strong preferred orientation. These are seeded directly onto pre-existing crystallites in the case of interior walls, but onto the organic cuticle in exterior walls, the bases of the crystallites forming a tightly packed mosaic against the cuticle. With growth the wedges become longer, broader and relatively flatter, developing into platey crystallites. These crystallites grow predominantly distally (i.e. parallel to wall growth direction) and are closely imbricated in a foliated fabric. Local disruptions to this pattern occur, especially in association with crystallite division along “divergent zones”. The pattern also breaks down in old walls where crystallite growing edges become less evident and imbrication is poorly developed. Although conforming to this general model, some differences exist between species of lichenoporids, and in the patterns found in different parts of the skeleton (e.g. apertural spines). Lichenoporid ultrastructure differs from that of both cinctiporid and hornerid cyclostomes: notably, lichenoporids lack the layer of transverse fibres found in cinctiporids, and their predominant distal growth direction of crystallites contrasts with the proximal direction found in hornerids. |
