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[Annelida] Fossil Aphroditid-like Polychaetes

Javier Luque via annelida%40net.bio.net (by javierluquec from gmail.com)
Mon Nov 4 16:38:55 EST 2013


Dear Annelida fellows,

A few years ago I discovered a small aphroditid-like polychaete in Late
Cretaceous rocks from Tropical America while looking for fossil
crustaceans. The polychaete preserves several chetae tufts, a scale?, an
oral opening, and the digestive tract. I am not totally sure about the
latter, but the aphroditoid-like appearance is more conspicuous (photo
attached). What do you think? How far could be possible to go on its
taxonomic rank? Poychaeta incertae sedis? Phyllodocida? Aphroditiformia?
Aphroditidae?

Geoff Read made me aware of *Palaeoaphrodite* Alessandro and Teruzzi, 1986,
which includes a handful of species ranging from Triassic to Jurassic (~205
to 165 Ma). Although the authors included these taxa within Aphroditidae
with confidence, *Palaeoaphrodite* is considered in WoRMS webpage as
Polychaeta incertae sedis. Do you know about other literature items on
fossil aphroditid-like polychaetes?

Any advise or comments would be highly appreciated.

Kind regards,
Javier


-- 
Javier Luque, Ph.D Student
Systematics and Evolution Group
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada

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