Polina, a master student jointly supervised by Dr. Nataliya Budaeva (UiB) and Dr. Alexander Tzetlin (Moscow State University) has spent a month in the invertebrate collections studying the bristle worms from the family Lumberineridae from the Western African Waters.

Lumbrinerid genera can be distinguished by the morphology of the jaw apparatus consisting of ventral fused mandibles and two rows of dorsal maxillary plates. Polina learned how to dissect the jaws and identified at least 11 genera of Lumbrinerids from the studied material. She is also planning to used microCT back at the Moscow University to study the morphology of the jaws in 3D. During her stay, Polina has studied the composition and morphology of chaetae, another character used in generic and species identification in Lumbrinerids, using SEM.

In addition, all studied specimens will be used in the molecular analysis to reconstruct the first phylogeny of the family Lumbrineridae based on genetic data. Please see the full description of the project: http://miwa.w.uib.no/allprojects/polychaeta-projects/

Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images of Lumbrinerids: A – Ninoe sp. anterior part of body, ventral view; B – the same, close view of parapodia and chaetae; C – Gallardoneris sp., compound hooks; D – Scoletoma sp., anterior part of body.