Oweniidae

Weigert, Anne & Bleidorn, Christoph, 2016, Current status of annelid phylogeny, Organisms Diversity & Evolution (New York, N. Y.) 16 (2), pp. 345-362 : 351

Oweniidae

The phylogenetic assessment of Oweniidae had been challenging using both molecular and morphological data ( Bartolomaeus 1995; Rouse and Fauchald 1997, 1998; Eeckhaut et al. 2000; Bleidorn et al. 2003a, b; Rousset et al. 2004; Rousset et al. 2007; Struck et al. 2007; Struck et al. 2008; Zrzavy et al. 2009). Oweniidae bear several unusual characteristics, like the presence of a largely intraepidermal nervous system ( Bubko and Minichev 1972), the special type of larva (Mitraria) with deuterostome-like features ( Smart and Von Dassow 2009), and the possession of monociliated epidermis cells ( Gardiner 1978). Based on cladistic analyses of morphological data, they were grouped deeply in the annelid tree in close relationship to Sabellida and Siboglinida within Canalipalpata ( Rouse and Fauchald 1998; Fauchald and Rouse 1997). Analyses based on only few molecular markers failed to resolve the position of Oweniidae within the Annelida, placing them either with Apistobranchidae , outgroups, in a basal branching position, or Siboglinidae and other sabellimorphs, but always with low support values ( Kojima 1998; Eeckhaut et al. 2000; Rousset et al. 2004; Bleidorn et al. 2003b; Rousset et al. 2007; Struck et al. 2007; Struck et al. 2008; Zrzavy et al. 2009; Struck 2013a, b). As ascertained for other basal branching annelids, increasing the number of genes used in molecular analyses not only improved the reconstruction of their phylogenetic position, but also increased support values resulting in a highly robust phylogeny ( Weigert et al. 2014; Andrade et al. 2015). Together with Magelonidae they form the sister group to all remaining annelids, which has been strongly supported in all recent phylogenomic analyses. For an easier communication, we propose the name Palaeoannelida for the taxon comprising Oweniidae and Magelonidae .

Interstitial annelids formerly known as BArchiannelida^