It might be interesting to compare what has happened concerning usage of
the former phyla Vestimentifera and Pogonophora. At the moment, as far
as I am aware from the published literature, no one amongst the many vent-
worm researchers has yet demoted him/herself to becoming a student of
family Siboglinidae (Annelida: Polychaeta) as would seem to be required
by compelling evidence, particularly over several recent years since Rouse
& Fauchald 1995. I wonder why not? As one 1998 paper cogently puts it,
"there is a large amount of congruence among several disparate sources
of data" that pogonophora are annelids. In contrast this does not seem to
be the situation yet with respect to echiurans. However, this is just an
observation, not a critical comment on vestimentiferan workers, who mostly
do not need to be involved with taxonomic hierarchy issues. Expressing
awareness but caution, or a delicate fudging / fence-sitting in these
matters is probably sensible practice ... as exemplified in a recent paper
by these workers on an echiuran:
McKenzie, J. D., & D. J. Hughes. 1999. Integument of Maxmuelleria
lankesteri (Echiura), with notes on bacterial symbionts and possible
evidence of viral activity. Invertebrate Biology, 118(3):296-309.
--
Geoff Read <g.read at niwa.cri.nz>
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