This landmark scientific reference for scientists, researchers, and students of marine biology tackles the monumental task of taking a complete biodiversity inventory of the Gulf of Mexico with full biotic and biogeographic information. Presenting a comprehensive summary of knowledge of Gulf biota through 2004, the book includes seventy-seven chapters, which list more than fifteen thousand species in thirty-eight phyla or divisions and were written by 138 authors from seventy-one institutions in fourteen countries.This first volume of Gulf of Mexico Origin, Waters, and Biota, a multivolumed set edited by John W. Tunnell Jr., Darryl L. Felder, and Sylvia A. Earle, provides information on each species' habitat, biology, and geographic range, along with full references and a narrative introduction to the group, which opens each chapter.

Polychaetes are very common marine worms belonging to the Annelid family that are of interest to marine biologists and invertebrate zoologists. The book presents an understanding of the biology of this group with many illustrations.

Annelids (the segmented worms) exist in a remarkably diverse range of mostly marine but also freshwater and terrestrial habitats, varying greatly in size and form. This text provides. This text begins with an introduction to the phylum and an outline of annelid taxonomy. The book describes their collection and the methods to ensure their optimal preservation, and provides an overview of anatomy with its relevant terminology. It includes the latest molecular phylogenomic evidence and is organised based on a new, robust phylogenetic hypothesis. It looks at groups which include Clitellata (comprising more than a third of total annelid diversity), Sipuncula, and Thalassematidae (formerly Echiura). It reflects the enormous amount of research on these organisms that has burgeoned since the millennium, principally due to their use as model organisms to address wider and more general evolutionary and ecological questions.

In this Special Issue, we address the state of the art of the systematics of the main annelid groups and the improvements in the diversity they hold, with special emphasis on the latest discoveries in well-studied areas, expeditions to unsurveyed areas or environments, or the use of novel techniques that allow for the improvement of biodiversity knowledge. We are hoping that this Special Issue will provide a platform facilitating a review of current knowledge on the subject, identifying current research problems, as well as indicating directions and research trends for the future.