| Sipunculus | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Sipunculus nudus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Annelida |
| Class: | Sipuncula |
| Order: | Golfingiida |
| Family: | Sipunculidae |
| Genus: | Sipunculus Linnaeus, 1766 |
| Synonyms [1] | |
List
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Sipunculus is a genus of worms belonging to the family Sipunculidae. [1]
Sipunculus is a variant spelling of the Latin siphunculus ("little tube"), [2] a diminutive of sipho from Greek σίφων (síphōn, "tube, pipe").
Siphunculus was used for fossilized worm-shaped organisms like Siphunculus scaber by the Welsh naturalist Edward Lhuyd in 1699. [3] In the next century, the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus used the scientific name Sipunculus nudus for a species of worms in his 1766 Systema Naturae . [4] In 1814, the French zoologist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque used the feminine form Sipuncula to distinguish the family including S. nudus; [5] this was later elevated to the Sipuncula class, the family being renamed Sipunculidae and the species reorganized into different genera. [6]
The genus has cosmopolitan distribution. [1]
Species included in Sipunculus are: [1]