lophophorebearing

Lophophorebearing refers to animals that possess a lophophore, a specialized feeding organ consisting of a crown of hollow, ciliated tentacles arranged around a central mouth. The term is used for three related phyla that share this feature: Brachiopoda (lamp shells), Phoronida (horseshoe worms), and Bryozoa (ectoprocts). The lophophore functions in filter feeding and in generating feeding currents through ciliary activity, and its structure can vary in shape from circular to horseshoe or U-shaped depending on the group.

In brachiopods, the lophophore is a circular or horseshoe-shaped crown located within the shell cavity and supported by the body via a stalk-like pedicle in many species. In bryozoans, each colonial zooid bears a lophophore that can retract into a protective cystid; the lophophore is the primary feeding organ for the individual zooid. In phoronids, a single lophophore extends from a wormlike body housed in a flexible tube. Across these groups, the lophophore serves to capture planktonic particles and detritus while helping to circulate water through the animal’s body.

Taxonomically, lophophorebearing animals are primarily marine and include thousands of bryozoan species, a few hundred brachiopod species, and a relatively small number of phoronid species. The presence of a lophophore has historically linked these phyla under the informal concept of Lophophorata, but modern phylogenetic studies have produced varying perspectives on their evolutionary relationships, and the lophophore is treated as a morphological feature rather than a guaranteed single evolutionary lineage.