Ghosts from the past - ancestral features reflected in the jaw ontogeny of the polychaetous annelids Marphysa fauchaldi (Eunicidae) and Diopatra aciculata (Onuphidae)
Species of Eunicida (polychaetous annelids) have complex jaw apparatuses with ventral mandibles growing throughout life, but dorsal maxillae undergoing successive moulting episodes. Jaw ontogeny was studied in the eunicid Marphysa fauchaldi, from the appearance of the mandibles and larval maxillae through two moults during the transformation to juvenile and sub-adult maxillae. Although larval maxi