Prize-winning research

[Kristian Fauchald]

I did get a bit of a chuckle both from the article and from Geoff's 
comments. I do not understand how the article got into Nature, but I am 
grateful that no scientific name was reported; at the level of taxonomic  
resolution this  goes into the literature, it is unlikely to do much damage.  

As many of you know, many eunicids build tubes and glue together 
whatever debris is in the vicinity of their tube openings.  There was no real 
mention of where the worms were from, be advised that if the specimens 
came  from the Great Barrier Reef, some 20+ species have been reported 
from that area in the genus Eunice alone and then in addition, there are 
species of Palola, Marphysa, Lysidice etc.   

I would also like to mention that "immature" is sort of difficult to determine 
since many eunicids reproduce more than once, and are empty of sex 
products for long periods of the year.  If "immature" means "juvenile" then 
that is a completely uncalled for conclusion.  If "immature" meant that the 
authors could not see sex-products, that is just fine, but without more 
detailed information, the two possible conclusions cannot be separated.   

Kristian Fauchald

<Fauchald.Kristian at NMNH.SI.EDU>


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