stenolaemate

stenolaemate, any member of the class Stenolaemata, a group of colonial marine animals within the invertebrate phylum Bryozoa (moss animals). About 900 species of stenolaemates have been described. Only one of the four orders that make up the class, the Cyclostomata, is represented by living species; all members of the other three orders (Cystoporata, Trepostomata, and Cryptostomata) are now extinct. The stenolaemates are the oldest of all the bryozoans and date from the Early Ordovician...