Gastopore

The gastropore contains the gastrozooid that is specialized in getting nutrition for the colony.

Used characteristics in the identification of species:

• Some gastrostyles have a base without spines

• Shape of the gastrostyle (elongated, christmas tree shaped,...)

• Length of the gastrostyle spines, bifurcating,...

Gastrostyle shape is very variable and thus species shouldn't be identified solely based on this characteristic