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Marine Biology

The University of Maine

Morphology

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Distribution Of Shell-Boring Polychaetes At Shellfish Aquaculture Sites Along The Northeast Coast Of The Us, Samantha Silverbrand Apr 2024

Distribution Of Shell-Boring Polychaetes At Shellfish Aquaculture Sites Along The Northeast Coast Of The Us, Samantha Silverbrand

Honors College

Coastal shellfish aquaculture has expanded substantially in recent years in Maine and New England as traditional wild fishery stocks have declined. As shellfish aquaculture has expanded, producers have become more concerned about marine worm pests (i.e., polychaetes) that infest cultured bivalves. In particular, worms from the genus Polydora (also known as “polydorids”) burrow into oyster and scallop shells where they feed and deposit mud. Bivalves cover over the muddy burrows creating blisters that can decrease their market value and hinder growth. Farmers and researchers have identified methods to control infestations of P. websteri, one common species of shell-boring worm. However, …


Peet: Lower Worms Of The Meiofauna - Models For Early Metazoan Evolution, Seth Tyler Jun 2008

Peet: Lower Worms Of The Meiofauna - Models For Early Metazoan Evolution, Seth Tyler

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Among the small invertebrates living between sand grains in the marine environment, are tiny, cryptic worms that many consider to be the most primitive of all bilaterally symmetrical animals (that is, all animals excluding the cnidarians and sponges). These worms include two small groups called acoel and catenulid turbellarians which are now classified in the phylum Platyhelminthes (flatworms) but that, according to some systematists, may not even be related to the more familiar flatworms such as planarians and polyclads. Another of these primitive worm groups is the Gnathostomulida, whose relationships to other phyla of invertebrates have been similarly controversial; by …