Carcasses and bones of whales are interesting yet poorly understood habitats for invertebrates and microbial communities. Nevertheless, bryozoans have never before been reported in this particular habitat at the present day. Here, we present the first study on a bryozoan community colonizing a whale bone from the continental shelf off NW Spain at 128 m depth. Thirty-three species of bryozoans were identified, representing 50% of the known bryozoan diversity from this area and depth range. Despite this high biodiversity, no potential whale-fall specialists were detected: all the species are already known in the area, with several being more frequent in shallower or deeper waters. Our results support the hypothesis that the number of specialist taxa on whale-fall habitats decreases drastically on whale remains at depths of less than 260 m. These results also support the theory that whale-falls can serve as intermediate habitats where no other suitable substrate is present, facilitating habitat colonization.

鲸鱼的尸体和骨头是无脊椎动物和微生物群落的有趣但鲜为人知的栖息地。然而，迄今为止，苔藓虫从未在这个特定的栖息地报告过。在这里，我们介绍了第一项关于苔藓虫群落的研究，该群落从西班牙西北部大陆架上 128 m 深度的鲸骨中定居。鉴定出 33 种苔藓动物，占该地区和深度范围内已知苔藓动物多样性的 50%。尽管生物多样性很高，但没有发现潜在的鲸落专家：所有物种在该地区都是已知的，其中一些在较浅或较深的水域更常见。我们的结果支持这样的假设，即鲸落栖息地的专业分类群数量在鲸鱼仍然在小于 260 m 的深度时急剧减少。