What on Earth is a Bryozoan?
Have you ever seen the white things growing on seagrass? Those are modern-day Bryozoans, which were common critters in the deep sea water 100,000 years ago. Back then, the sea level in Miami was 25 feet higher. Would your room be above the water? Two processes involving the Bryozoans formed about 70 per cent of the rock in the Everglades. This rock is called Miami Limestone. (It’s not coral rock, but many people make that mistake.) In the first process, the new Bryozoans got together to make colonies on the remains of the old ones. In the second process, a chemical like the one in heartburn medicines was so common in the shallow water that it was constantly looking for a place to grab onto. Grains of sand were coated with this stuff until they formed small pearl-like stones called “ooids.” Then ice bergs at the poles consumed much of the Earth’s water and the ocean level dropped to near where it is today. The little stones settled among the Bryozoans, and the two were squeezed together
