Sclerobionts are collectively known as organisms living in or on any kind of hard substrate (Taylor and Wilson, 2003). A few examples of sclerobionts include ''

Entobia ''Entobia'' is a trace fossil in a hard substrate (typically a shell, rock or hardground made of calcium carbonate) formed by sponges as a branching network of galleries, often with regular enlargements termed chambers. Apertural canals conne ...

'' borings, '' Gastrochaenolites'' borings, ''Talpina'' borings, serpulids, encrusting oysters, encrusting

foraminiferans Foraminifera (; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class of amoeboid protists characterized by streaming granular ectoplasm for catching food and other uses; and commonly an ...

, ''Stomatopora''

bryozoans Bryozoa (also known as the Polyzoa, Ectoprocta or commonly as moss animals) are a phylum of simple, aquatic invertebrate animals, nearly all living in sedentary colonies. Typically about long, they have a special feeding structure called a l ...

, and ''“Berenicea”''

. Image:EntobiaVoigtoporaCoonCreek.jpg, ''

sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate throug ...

borings and the cyclostome bryozoan ''Voigtopora thurni'' on an oyster valve from the Coon Creek Beds of the Ripley Formation (Upper

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

) near Blue Springs, Mississippi. Image:BoredEncrustedShell.JPG, Another example of ''

borings and encrusting serpulid worms on a modern shell of the bivalve ''Mercenaria'' in North Carolina. Image:ThecideanZalas.jpg, Thecideide

brachiopod Brachiopods (), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of trochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, w ...

(T), sabellid worm tube (S) and bryozoans (B) on the shell of the bivalve ''Ctenostreon'' from the Upper

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. Image: SerpulidsPecten.JPG, ''Serpulid '' worms enrusting ''Pecten''; Duck Harbor Beach on Cape Cod Bay, Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Image:Chesapecten barnacles Pliocene VA.jpg, ''

Chesapecten ''Chesapecten'' is an extinct genus of scallop known from marine strata from the early Miocene to the early Pleistocene of the Eastern United States. It flourished in the shallow seas along the Mid-Atlantic during this period. Other scallop ...

'',

barnacles A barnacle is a type of arthropod constituting the subclass Cirripedia in the subphylum Crustacea, and is hence related to crabs and lobsters. Barnacles are exclusively marine, and tend to live in shallow and tidal waters, typically in eros ...

and sponge borings (''

'') from the Pliocene of York River, Virginia, USA.

References

* Biological processes Ecology {{ecology-stub, June 2011

See also

References