The Sipuncula or Sipunculida (common names sipunculid worms or peanut worms) is a group containing 144-320 species (estimates vary) of bilaterally symmetrical, unsegmented marine worms. Traditionally considered a phylum, molecular work suggests that they might be a subgroup of phylum Annelida.
The first species of this phylum was described in 1827 by the French zoologist Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville who named it Sipunculus vulgaris. A relat...
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The Sipuncula or Sipunculida (common names sipunculid worms or peanut worms) is a group containing 144-320 species (estimates vary) of bilaterally symmetrical, unsegmented marine worms. Traditionally considered a phylum, molecular work suggests that they might be a subgroup of phylum Annelida.
The first species of this phylum was described in 1827 by the French zoologist Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville who named it Sipunculus vulgaris. A related species was later described as Golfingia macintoshii by E. Ray Lankester. The specimen was provided by a friend of his Professor Mackintosh. The specimen was dissected by Lankester between rounds of golf at Saint Andrews golf club in Scotland from which the species derives its name. Golfingia is now the genus name and Sipuncula the name of the phylum to which these worms belong.
Sipunculids are all marine and are relatively common, and live in shallow waters, either in burrows or in discarded shells like hermit crabs do. Some bore into...
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