Kimberley marine biota. Historical data: polychaetes (Annelida)

Abstract

We examined all the previously published records of polychaetes from the Kimberley Project Area as well as unpublished records from Australian museum records and updated any recent nomenclatural changes. Over 260 species from 43 families have been reported and we suggest that this number will increase considerably as more survey work is carried out in the area and additional habitats such as soft sediments are properly surveyed. At this stage many of these species appear to have wide distributions with few endemic species recorded, but we anticipate this will increase with taxonomic revisions incorporating both molecular and morphological techniques. We hope this paper will advertise the availability of this material to specialists for incorporation into their Australian revisions.