Nemertea  -  ribbon worms

Nemerteans are widespread in all marine environments, and include interstitial, commensal, parasitic and pelagic forms. They may be conspicuous members of the macrobenthos. Nemerteans also occur in estuarine, freshwater and terrestrial environments. The majority of free living nemerteans are apparently predators.

In life, nemerteans are often mucous covered. Their fragility is such that nemerteans are typically present in benthic samples as a number of flattened fragments. Identification of nemerteans relies on interpreting anatomy via histological preparations and serial sections and is often impossible unless appropriate fixatives are used. For those unable to gain this specialist knowledge the only hope for delineating species groups is to examine collections while living and make the reasonable assumption that colour patterns are often species specific. For example, Sundberg & Gibson (1995) provide a key to Rottnest Island nemerteans that is based largely on colour pattern.

About 1,400 species of nemerteans are known globally. Australia's Great Barrier Reef fauna, and that of Western Australia, has been well studied and the subject of a number of papers by Gibson (see below). In contrast, the fauna of southeastern Australia remains poorly known with Gibson (1997) being the only practical tool for non-specialists. Edgar (2000) has photographs of 3 species from southeastern Australia but they are unidentified.

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