Saturday 28 November 2015

Neosabellides lizae: A new species of Ampharetid Worm from Lizard Island on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Ampharetid Worms are small, usually marine, Annelid Worms related to the tube-building Trumpet Worms and the Alvinellid Tube Worms found living around hydrothermal vents. They are small infaunal Worms, living in burrows in mud, sand, or other unconsolidated sediments and feeding by ingesting sediment and digesting organic material within it.

In a paper published in the journal Zootaxa on 18 September 2015, Tom Alvestad of Uni Research and Natural History Collections at the University Museum ofBergen and Nataliya Budaeva, also of Natural History Collections at the University Museum of Bergen, and of the P.P. Shirshov Instituteof Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, describe a new species of Ampharetid Worm from sediments off Casuarina Beach on Lizard Island on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, close to the LizardIsland Research Station of the Australian Museum.

The new species is placed in the genus Neosabellides, and given the specific name lizae in reference to the area where it was found. The worms are 3-5 mm in length, and a metalic silver grey in colour. They each have 26 thoracic segments and 14 abdominal segements with paradopodia (limbs) and one pair of eyes on the head.

Neosabellides lizae, live specimens. Arrows indicate the position of the eyes, br indicates branchial tentacles. Alvestad & Budaeva (2015).

See also...

http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/cretaceous-bone-eating-worms-from.htmlCretaceous Bone-eating Worms from England.                                                                          Siboglinid Worms are a distinctive group of Annelids which lack mouths and digestive tracts in their...
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/a-new-species-of-serpulid-worm-from.htmlA new species of Serpulid Worm from the Caribbean.                                                 Serpulids are distinctive Polychaete Worms found throughout the world’s oceans, from the intertidal zones to the deep seas. They live in calcareous tubes, which they cement to hard substrates, and are...
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/two-new-species-of-scolecodont-from.htmlTwo new species of Scolecodont from the Early Devonian of the Ukraine.               Scolecodonts are the fossilized remains of the chitinous teeth and jaw elements of Polychaete Worms. They are described as species since preservation of entire Worms more-or-less never happens. Scolecodonts are known in the fossil record from the Cambrian...

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