Definition of "avicularium" []

• A modified zooid, in some colonial bryozoans, in the form of a beak, that prevents other organisms from settling on the colony (noun)

Wiktionary.org : Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

• "It is interesting to see two such widely different organs developed from a common origin; and as the moveable lip of the cell serves as a protection to the zooid, there is no difficulty in believing that all the gradations, by which the lip became converted first into the lower mandible of an avicularium and then into an elongated bristle, likewise served as a protection in different ways and under different circumstances."
• "The avicularia are believed by Mr. Busk, Dr. Smitt, and Dr. Nitsche—naturalists who have carefully studied this group—to be homologous with the zooids and their cells which compose the zoöphyte; the moveable lip or lid of the cell corresponding with the lower and moveable mandible of the avicularium."
• "It is not easy to imagine two objects more widely different in appearance than a bristle or vibraculum, and an avicularium like the head of a bird; yet they are almost certainly homologous and have been developed from the same common source, namely a zooid with its cell."