NHMO Lophophorata collection

The digitized Lophophorata collection presented was established in 2025 and will continue to be populated by NHMO’s holdings of the Phyla Bryozoa, Brachiopoda and Phoronida. Several of NHMO’s historical collections from the Dannevig expeditions (1950’s), the Fram 2 expedition (early 1898-1902), and the Norwegian North-Atlantic Expedition (1876-1878), first worked on, among others, by the marine biologist Immanuel Vigeland, nephew of the more famous Gustav Vigeland, and the well-known Ole Nordgaard, are available here. Naturally, material from the Oslofjord, starting from the 1910’s, notably collected by Martit and Bengt Christiansen (Drøbakinnsamlingene, 1950’s) are also included. In addition, voucher specimens from global sequencing efforts, (early 2020's) funded by the European Research Council (ERC), spearheaded by researchers from the NHMO (Evolution and Paleobiology, EPA) from more recent collecting efforts are also represented here.Currently this digital collection is biased towards marine Bryozoa (90%), reflecting not just the known extant diversity of lophophorates (there are 6000+ described species of living bryozoan but only 400+ species of living brachiopods), but also the research interest of NHMO, in part supported by Artsdatabanken (project NorDigBryo, 2023-2025). There are also freshwater Bryozoa from across Norway collected by Jan Økland. About 60% of this collection is preserved in ethanol, while the rest are dried specimens, some on microscopy slides, as many of these animals are small.