HALANYCH, Kenneth M; Auburn University: WormNet: Progress towards understanding Annelid phylogeny.

To date the only phylogenetic analyses covering the diversity of annelids are morphological cladistic studies. One of the explicit goals of the WormNet program is to build a robust phylogenetic framework for Annelida based on molecular data. To this end various participants of the WormNet program have been working on the large and small nuclear ribosomal subunits, nuclear protein coding genes, and complete mitochondrial genomes. Consistent with the morphological data, molecular data suggests that recognized families of annelids are easy to recognize but that the relationships between the groups are more challenging to elucidate. Nonetheless some progress has been made with understanding the early evolution of the group. The evolutionary framework that is taking shape based on complete nuclear ribosome gene sequence data will be presented. How the molecular work compares to the morphological cladistic analysis of Rouse and Fauchald (1997; Zoo. Scripta 26: 139-204) will be discussed. Investigation of higher-level annelid phylogeny is expanding the pool molecular markers that can be used for less inclusive taxa (i.e. within genera or within families).