Hi @Hive Community!

I hope that you are having moments of productivity in your houses due to the contingency we are going through, #stayathome. You know it is hard work and it takes many hours of work to bring quality content to Hive. I hope to meet this goal today😃

Today is the turn to star in this scene to the "marine worms" that inhabit the Colombian coasts, they are called "polychaetes" precisely because they belong to the class Polychaeta.

At first glance, they may seem unpleasant (or maybe not for some), but they fulfill important roles in the ecosystem in which they develop, let's learn a little about them ...

Photo by E. Lazo-Wasem

An article by Diana Báez and Néstor Ardilla (Museum of Marine Natural History of Colombia)

Polychaetes ("marine worms") constitute the class Polychaeta, defined within the annelids by their morphology and habits. Predominantly marine organisms, they have evolved since the middle Cambrian period (more than 540 million years ago), although fossils have been known for much longer than that (Rouse & Pleijel 2001). They can be found from shallow areas (shallow depth) to great ocean depths (Amaral & Nonato 1996).

Basically its body consists of a cephalic lobe or prostomium, or in other words, something like the internal and fleshy part of our ears, they also have sensory structures such as eyes, antennae and palps; a segmented body or metastomy which bears the parapodia which are even lateral appendages arranged along the body; and a final end or pygidium. The presence of quetas, which are like little "hairs", constitutes the most conspicuous character for the group (Fauchald 1977; Amaral & Nonato 1996).

Photo by Marinebio.org "The fantastic Christmas Tree Worm!"

Why are they important?

Polychaetes are one of the most diverse and abundant groups present in all marine sediments from intertidal zones to great depths. This makes them vital to the structure, production, dynamics and health of the benthos (seabed) and marine environment. They also help the deposition, decomposition, incorporation and exchange of organic matter in the seabed, contributing to the recycling of nutrients in the water column (Liñero-Arana & Reyes-Vásquez 1979).

Photo by Marinebio.org "The incredible fireworm!"

Finally ... The species that inhabit the Colombian Caribbean

Next we will see a brief list of some of the polychaetes that live there (identified down to the gender level, it would be very difficult to put them all, since more than 250 different species are registered! (Báez and Ardilla) Let's see some of them ...