Flotidae is a family of pelagic

polychaete Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine Annelid, annelid worms, common name, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called c ...

worms, sometimes synonymized with

Flabelligeridae Flabelligeridae is a family of polychaete worms, known as bristle-cage worms, notable for their cephalic cage: long slender chaetae forming a fan-like arrangement surrounding the eversible (able to be turned inside-out) head. Unlike many polychae ...

, which they closely resemble. Other sources consider them the

sister taxon In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

to Flabelligeridae and closely allied to the latter group.Zhadan, A. E., and A. B. Tzetlin.
Polychaetes from deep pelagic zone of the Mid-Atlantic ridge.
''Invertebr. Zool'' 5 (2008): 97-109.

Taxonomy

Flotidae originally contained one genus, ''Flota'', from which it derives its name, but a 2007 study also placed '' Buskiella'' in the family, and moved all (two) ''Flota'' species to ''Buskiella''. The family would thus contains one genus and three species, listed below. * '' Buskiella abyssorum'' McIntoch, 1885 * '' Buskiella flabelligera'' (Hartman, 1967) formerly ''Flota flabelligera'' * '' Buskiella vitjasi'' (Buzhinskaja, 1977) formerly ''Flota vitjasi''

Similarities and differences with Flabelligeridae

A 2008 paper analyzing the

phylogenetics In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

of flotid polychaetes found that flotids are nested within

. However, defenders of the separate family status of Flotidae cite several morphological differences.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q21227770 Polychaetes Annelid families