Systematics and faunistics of bryozoans
A manuscript for the series "Zoology of Iceland" on Icelandic bryozoans, comprising about 210 species, is near completion. Samples of bryozoans collected around Surtsey (Iceland) in 1992 have been worked up for the "Surtsey Research Society" (K.B. Hansen). A collection comprising 44 bryozoan species from Disko Island has been studied (K.B. Hansen, with O. Bennike, Geological Museum, K.L. Knudsen and D.N. Penny, University of Århus, and K. Lund Rasmussen, The C-14 Laboratory of the National Museum). Icelandic species posing taxonomic problems have been studied with SEM (K.B. Hansen, with P.J. Hayward, University of Wales, Swansea).
The systematics of cyclostomatous bryozoans and especially a regeneration phenomenon involving changed orientation of the colony fragments have been studied on a material collected from the Antarctic* (A. Ostrovsky).
The cyclostome species Crisia eburna has been studied with regard to structure and function, using TEM and video-recording of particle-catch. The laterofrontal ciliae act as a mechanical filter; particles intercepted by these ciliae induce a tentacle beat which guides the particle to the center of the tentacle crown where the current leads directly into the mouth. There is thus no reversal in the beating of the lateral ciliae as has hitherto been assumed. The study supports the idea that ectoproct bryozoans are not closely related to brachiopods and phoronids; a manuscript is near completion (C. Nielsen, with H.U. Riisgaard, University of Odense).