#4927 · 🪼 jellyfish, starfish, worms & co
Magnificent Bryozoan
🇳🇱 Waterzakmosdiertje ·Pectinatella magnifica
9 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
Pectinatella magnifica (the magnificent bryozoan) is a member of the Bryozoa phylum, in the order Plumatellida. It is a colony of organisms that bind together; these colonies can sometimes be 60 centimeters (2 feet) in diameter. These organisms can be found mostly in North America with some in Europe. They are often found attached to objects, but can be found free floating as well. They form a translucent body with many star-like blooms along the outside....
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 9 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist.
- 5,325 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Joseph Leidy in 1851 (175 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Magnificent Bryozoan
- Nederlands
- Waterzakmosdiertje
- scientific name
- Pectinatella magnifica
- class
- Phylactolaemata
- order
- Plumatellida
- family
- Pectinatellidae
- sightings in NL
- 9
- sightings in Europe
- 330
- sightings worldwide
- 5,325
- GBIF records in NL
- 126
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1851 by Joseph Leidy
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 68103, Wikidata Q144410, GBIF 1003567, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.