Fossil History

Polychaetes are arguably one of the most abundant and significantly diverse marine invertebrate clades. They inhabit a range of environments from man-made seaways to coral reefs and their range extends from the shoreline to deep volcanic vents (Eriksson & Frisk, 2011). It is evident in the fossil record that the diversity of polychaetes and their ability to inhabit a range of environmental conditions extends back to the early Palaeozoic era (Eriksson & Frisk, 2011). Geological cores containing an enormous number of fossilised polychaete jaws (or scolecodonts) indicate that jaw-bearing polychaetes diversified significantly from the middle Ordovician onward (Hints & Eriksson, 2007).