POLYCHAETE SYSTEMATICS - PAST AND PRESENT

In this paper, we first demonstrate the historical background for the current unsatisfactory state of systematics of the polychaetes. We the n briefly discuss our knowledge of internal and external structures. A review of the polychaete families makes up the third section; 81 fami lies are treated in detail. Five families have been recently synonymiz ed with others, and six families are too poorly known to be sufficient ly characterized. Fossil polychaetes are briefly mentioned, with speci fic attention to problems associated with incorporating them in recent systematics. The traditional separation in 'errant' and 'sedentary' p olychaetes has increasingly become recognized as being unsatisfactory; however, the current trend towards grouping the polychaetes in many o rders without specifying the relationships among the orders, is no mor e satisfactory. The lack of consistent morphological information is a major source of uncertainty. Intensive morphological studies should re move terminological ambiguities and alleviate some of the problems. (C ) The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.