Pectinariidae, or the trumpet worms or ice cream cone worms, are a family of
marine polychaete
Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine annelid worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made ...
worms that build tubes using grains of sand roughly resembling ice cream cones or trumpets. These structures can be up to long. The earliest pectinariid fossils are known from the
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...
.
Ecology
Pectinariids are
sessile
Sessility, or sessile, may refer to:
* Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about
* Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant
* Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...
burrowing tube dwellers, which can be found in fine-grained sediment. They position the wider end of their tube downwards, and use their stout golden
setae
In biology, setae (singular seta ; from the Latin word for " bristle") are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms.
Animal setae
Protostomes
Annelid setae are stiff bristles present on the body. ...
for digging while they use tentacles for sorting the particles which they ingest. Half of the particles which the worm digs through are excreted as
pseudofaeces.
Genera
The systematics of the pectinariids have been the subject of some debate. Previously, only two genera have been recognized, but three subgenera have been elevated to full genera by some scholars.
[Hutchings, P., & Peart, R. (2002). A review of the genera of Pectinariidae (Polychaeta) together with a description of the Australian fauna. RECORDS-AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM, 54(1), 99-127.]
* ''
Amphictene''
Savigny, 1818 - sometimes included as subgenera in ''Pectinaria''
* ''
Cistenides''
Malmgren, 1866 - sometimes included as subgenera in ''Pectinaria''
* ''
Lagis''
Malmgren, 1866 - sometimes included as subgenera in ''Pectinaria''
* ''
Pectinaria''
Savigny, 1818
* ''
Petta''
Malmgren, 1866
References
External links
*
*
*
from A Guide to Singapore PolychaetesPectinaria at MBL Marine Organisms Database* The Polychaeta Terebellida homepage
Terebellida
Taxa named by Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau
Annelid families
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