Saccocirridae regnes som en meiofaunal eller interstitiell annelidfamilie, ettersom alle artene finnes i rommet mellom sandkornene. Mens noen få arter kan være ganske små med 3 mm, er flere ganske store med opptil 3 cm i lengde. I tillegg kan de være ganske brede med en kroppsbredde på […]

Saccocirridae is considered a meiofaunal or interstitial annelid family as all species are found in the space between the sand grains. While a few species might be quite small with 3 mm, several are quite large with up to 3 cm in length. Additionally, they can be quite […]

Protodriloidae er en familie med bare to arter i slekten Protodriloides. Sammen med familiene Saccocirridae og Protodrilidae er de en del av ordenen Protodrilida. Vi vil lære mer om de to andre familiene i løpet av de neste to månedene. Så gled dere til det. Begge Protodriloides-artene ser […]

The next interstitial annelid family, I would like to present to you are the polygordiids. Even though these worms are part of our MeioSkag project investigating meiofaunal species in the Skagerrak, they are not truly meiofauna as their body length ranges from 1-10 cm. Hence, they are quite […]

Den neste interstitielle annelidfamilien jeg vil presentere for dere, er polygordiidene. Selv om disse markene er en del av MeioSkag-prosjektet vårt, som undersøker meiofauna-arter i Skagerrak, er de ikke egentlig meiofauna, da kroppslengden deres varierer fra 1 til 10 cm. De er altså ganske store. Men fordi de […]

For benthic invertebrates, the ability to disperse is usually limited to the short time period when they are larvae. A common way is to produce huge masses of tiny planktonic larvae that float and feed among the plankton, until they reach a big enough size to metamorphose to […]

As part of our new ArtsDatabanken project MeioSkag, we are investigating interstitial and meiofaunal species occurring in sediments of the Norwegian part of the Skagerrak. Among others, this includes the so-called interstitial families within Annelida. In this series “Group of the month”, I will now present the different […]

Som en del av vårt nye ArtsDatabanken-prosjekt MeioSkag undersøker vi interstitielle og meiofauna arter som forekommer i sedimenter i den norske delen av Skagerrak. Dette omfatter blant annet de såkalte interstitielle familiene innenfor Annelida. I denne serien «Månedens gruppe» vil jeg nå presentere de ulike familiene som ikke […]

Annelida, or segmented worms, is a vast and diverse group of metazoans of over 20000 species that includes, amongst others, earthworms, leeches, echiurids, sipunculids and polychaetes. With over 300 species the polychaete family Cirratulidae is one of the most species-rich and common in benthic assemblages in a variety […]

Annelida, eller segmenterte ormer, er en stor og mangfoldig gruppe av metazoer med over 20 000 arter, som blant annet omfatter meitemark, igler, echiurider, sipunculider og polychaeter. Med over 300 arter er polychaete-familien Cirratulidae en av de mest artsrike og vanlige i bentiske samfunn i en rekke habitater. […]

The marine biodiversity of Europe is generally considered well known comparison to other regions, especially of the global South. However, also in European waters, some habitats and regions have been scarcely studied and many species could remain to be discovered and described. This has been shown, for example, […]

Den marine biologiske mangfoldigheten i Europa anses generelt å være godt kjent sammenlignet med andre regioner, spesielt i den globale sørlige halvkule. Imidlertid er også i europeiske farvann noen habitater og regioner knapt studert, og mange arter kan fortsatt være uoppdagede og ubeskrevne. Dette er for eksempel vist […]

For most people, discovering new species seems like an extraordinary event, something that happens only once in a lifetime or at least something very rare. However, for some groups of organisms, particularly understudied ones, it’s actually very easy to come across a new species to science and perhaps […]

This month, we will present to you the boring worms. These are worms of different genera, which belong to the polychaete family Spionidae. Polychaetes are also called bristle worms as the often have a large number (poly) of bristles (chaetae) on their segments. The family Spionidae is a […]

Denne måneden vil vi presentere de “boring” ormene. Dette er ormer av forskjellige slekter, som tilhører polychaete-familien Spionidae. Polychaeter kalles også flerbørstemarker, ettersom de ofte har et stort antall (poly) børster (chaetae) på segmentene sine. Familien Spionidae er en familie som omfatter mer enn 600 arter i mer […]

The group of the month I would like to introduce to you today is a group I have a close personal connection with. The group goes back a long way with me. I will present you the annelid family Dinophilidae. After my Diploma thesis (today Master thesis) on […]

Månedens gruppe jeg vil presentere for dere i dag, er en gruppe jeg har et nært personlig forhold til. Gruppen har en lang historie for meg. Jeg vil presentere familien til Annelida Dinophilidae. Etter å ha skrevet diplomoppgave (i dag masteroppgave) om proteiner i et virus relatert til […]

As we open the door on day 20, we look at a species in the Invertomics study category in the wild, and highlight a study from 2019 that places Platynereis in a modern context, to assess its capability to act as a model organism for studies of ocean […]

December is a time to reflect on the year that has passed, both the happy and sad, the success and the failures. But it’s also a time to look forward to the year ahead, new possibilities and opportunities. For me, this is especially important, as next time December […]

As part of the ArtsDatabanken project “Assessing biodiversity in the marine algae belt“, we taught a class of eager students and consultants about the species of our project. The course did not only comprise theoretical lectures, but really hands-on experience. We went out to different spots in Drøbak […]

Mitochondria are the energy plant of our cells. Originally, they were bacteria, but then they were captured by the ancestors of eukaryotes (among others all animals, mushrooms and plants) and used to produce energy for the cell. This is also known as the endosymbiotic theory. An inheritance from […]

This month it is time for another group of polychaetes, the family Sabellidae. Sabellids are present from intertidal to abyssal marine waters all around the world (Rouse et al. 2022). They inhabit both soft substrates such as sand or mud and hard substrates such as rocks or coral […]

One of my favourite papers this year is, logically, about two of my favourite topics: taxonomy and worms. In this paper, Lavesque et al. revise the family Terebellidae sensu stricto (a part of the spaghetti worms I presented in a previous blog post) in French waters. They review […]

Text and pictures by Maël Grosse Among all the worm-like animals in the sea, polychaetes, or bristle worms, are probably the most diverse and striking group. This month is the opportunity to look at one of the most beautiful group of polychaetes (Fig. 1), the family Terebellidae Johnston, […]

Today, our paper about Perinereis species from the intertidal coasts of the Red Sea, Gulf of Suez and Suez Canal lead by Asmaa Haris Elgetany was published in ZooKeys. It is her third paper from her internship at our group and fittingly we are describing three new species […]