Life on Life (Epibiota)


Throughout the week we got to experience many different forms of life. Some of these forms of life are so small, or in such weird places that you wouldn’t even expect them to be alive. There were several different organisms that we found living on top of other organisms. Epibiota is life that is living on top of life. This could be algae growing on top of a clam, or barnacles growing on a hermit crab shell. This picture is of algae with bryozoans living on top of it. When I first saw this I would have just assumed that it was salt or maybe the color of the algae, but I learned that it is actually a living organism on top of the algae. Each tiny hole in the white substance has a little organism living in it that will pop out to feed. 



While this shell is not currently living, it might have once been a part of epibiota. You can see that the inside of the shell has spaghetti-like squiggles all over it. These are from tube worms that will create a casing on a hard surface to live in. There are also a few barnacles on the shell. I’m unsure if they are alive or not, but they could have once been alive at the same time as the clam living in this shell, which would have been a form of epibiota. -Amber:)


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