Gymnolaemates are a class of bryozoans, which comprise a phylum of colonial organisms that inhabit freshwater and marine environments. Dr. Russell Zimmer has discovered a previously overlooked pattern of cell development (the "inter-coronal cells") in the larvae of gymnolaemates, and he proposes a survey of these cells as they occur in different gymnolaemate groups. Differences among cell types and their pattern of development will help to discriminate species, and to reconstruct their evolutionary relationships. The results based on cell development patterns will be synthesized with those based on data from adult and fossilized specimens. The proposed project will find an interested audience among invertebrate zoologists, and developmental and evolutionary biologists. A better understanding of bryozoan diversity and evolutionary relationships will form the basis for research in ecology, marine biology, biogeography, and cell biology.
