[Annelida] amber waves of polychaetes

[Geoff Read]

>>> On 26/07/2008 at 9:15 p.m., "H.A. ten Hove" <H.A.tenHove from uva.nl> wrote:
> The "tufts" in your photographs are too blurred 
> unfortunately, and not the nice radiolar crowns typical for 
> sabellids, but that may be due to the screenshot quality. Have a 
> feeling that Bush (1905) photographed Alaskan sabellids of your 
> indicated size (Bush, K.J., 1905.- Tubicolous annelids of the tribes 
> Sabellides and Serpulides from the Pacific Ocean. Harriman Alaska 
> Exp. 12, 1904 [publ.1905]: 169-355, pl.21-44. )
> 
> Maybe one of my sabellid colleagues can give a better guess.

Hi Harry & Chris,

I have rather more interest in sabellids than I once did, but ain't an expert. But what you need here is a local-area biologist who would recognise these instantly, despite the low resolution. They sure look sabellid-like tubes and it's too shallow for siboglinids. As Harry indicates the discordant note is the non-fully-emergent fans in all images, if fans they be, or else the fans are very short.

Bush's paper is a very good suggestion, but her species names are much combined & synonymised since, although her genera Pseudopotamilla (usually too small?), Eudistylia and Schizobranchia remain. The original expedition reports are scarce, but someone may have digitised this one. Also it was reprinted in 1972. The photos are of individual worms.

"During the summer of 1899, [the expedition] cruised the waters off southeastern and southern Alaska and the eastern Aleutians, and the Bering Sea, making stops for scientific investigations and collecting at many places"

Geoff



-- 

 Geoff Read <g.read from niwa.co.nz>
   http://www.annelida.net/
  http://www.niwascience.co.nz/ncabb/