''Golfingia vulgaris'' is a marine

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

belonging to the

phylum In biology, a phylum (; plural: phyla) is a level of classification or taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class. Traditionally, in botany the term division has been used instead of phylum, although the International Code of Nomenclature f ...

Sipuncula, the peanut worms. It is a cylindrical, unsegmented

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wor ...

with a crown of

tentacle In zoology, a tentacle is a flexible, mobile, and elongated organ present in some species of animals, most of them invertebrates. In animal anatomy, tentacles usually occur in one or more pairs. Anatomically, the tentacles of animals work main ...

s around the mouth. It lives in burrows in shallow seas in various parts of the world.

Description

Like other sipunculans, the body is divided into a larger rear end known as the trunk and a narrower front end known as the introvert. The trunk is cylindrical and can reach 200 mm in length but is more commonly 20–50 mm.Cutler, Edward B. (1994) ''The Sipuncula: their Systematics, Biology, and Evolution'', Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York. It varies in colour from grey to white to yellow-brown.Barnes, M.K.S. (2008
''Golfingia vulgaris''. A sipunculid worm.

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: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme, Plymouth:

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. Accessed 29 March 2009. The two ends of the trunk are often pigmented dark brown or black. The introvert can be retracted into the trunk by the retractor

muscle Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscl ...

s of which there are usually four but occasionally three. The introvert bears many dark brown, slightly bent hooks. These are arranged irregularly unlike the similar species '' Golfingia elongata'' where the hooks are arranged in rings.Fish, Susan (2006) ''A Student's Guide to the Seashore'', Cambridge University Press. Young specimens have a crown of around 20 small, finger-like tentacles arranged in a circle around the mouth. As the worm grows the number of tentacles can increase to over 150 and they are arranged in three or more circles. The

entoproct Entoprocta (), or Kamptozoa , is a phylum (biology), phylum of mostly Sessility (zoology), sessile aquatic animals, ranging from long. Mature individuals are goblet-shaped, on relatively long stalks. They have a "crown" of solid tentacles whos ...

'' Loxosomella phascolosomata'' often attaches itself to the worm.

Taxonomy

It was first described in 1827 by the French zoologist Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville who gave it the name ''Sipunculus vulgaris''. It is now placed in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

'' Golfingia'' which was created by the British zoologist

E. Ray Lankester Sir Edwin Ray Lankester (15 May 1847 – 13 August 1929) was a British zoologist.New International Encyclopaedia. An invertebrate zoologist and evolutionary biologist, he held chairs at University College London and Oxford University. He was th ...

in 1885 and named to celebrate a

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

ing holiday in

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

.Cowles, Dave (2007)
Golfingia vulgaris
''. Accessed 29 March 2009. The species is variable in appearance and has several

synonyms A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

. A varying number of

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

are recognized.

Distribution and habitat

It has a widespread but patchy distribution around the world. It occurs in the eastern

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

from

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

and

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

south to

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

and also occurs in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to t ...

and

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...

. It is found locally in the western

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

and there is a record from the eastern Pacific off

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. The subspecies ''G. v. herdmani'' is found in parts of the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

and around

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It is found in mud, sand and gravel at depths of 5–2000 m, mainly occurring in waters less than 500 m deep. There is also one record from 5,540 m down in the Kuril–Kamchatka Trench. ''G. v. herdmani'' occurs in warm, shallow water.

References

External links

MarLIN image gallery
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2339925 Sipunculans Fauna of the Atlantic Ocean Fauna of the Indian Ocean Fauna of the Pacific Ocean Animals described in 1827 Taxa named by Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville