The fairly complex feeding apparatus posessed by Brachiopods, Bryozoa, and other Lophophorates. Though Brachiopods and Bryozoa look nothing alike, they are both grouped as Lophophorata because they both posess a lophophore. The lophophore is quite specifically designed, and so is highly unlikely to have evolved separately in different lineages, so the Bryozoans and Brachiopods are much more closely related than one would think.

Loph"o*phore (?), n. [Gr. a crest or tuft + to bear.] Zool.

A disk which surrounds the mouth and bears the tentacles of the Bryozoa. See Phylactolemata.

 

© Webster 1913.