Photos by Guido Zsilavecz	Myzostomids Georgina and Sharon, on finding the crinoid shrimp shown elsewhere on this website, also found these odd "bumps" on the elegant feather stars (crinoids), Tropiometra carinata (see the news index page for myzostomids - it shows the bottom part of a crinoid shrimp standing over a myzostomid.) They approached Professor Griffiths from the zoology department at UCT, for help. He was very interested - to quote from his e-mail: "myzostomids are an odd group of animals previously thought to be polychaetes but now thought to be a phylum on their own. They have 5 pairs of soft legs and steal food from the feeding grooves of crinoids and basket stars. To date I have only the one species you have photographed and I have lined up a taxonomist in Europe to identify them. I am keen first to look in the other crinoid species (Comanthus) to see if this has myzostomids as well. It will also be interesting to check the basket star (they are found in the stomach of other related species to ours)." A genetic study performed in Belgium has shown that myzostomids are indeed not related to polychaetes, but are more closely related to flatworms (Platyhelminthes). The myzostomids shown were photographed at deep A-Frame and are 1-3 mm long. News Flash! The myzostomid is a new, undescribed species, of the genus Hypomyzostoma. It is currently being described by researchers in Belgium. This is what they say: "Our analyses indicate that the Hypomyzostoma from South Africa is certainly a new species. First, there are five transversal bands on the adults that is unusual on the known hypomyzostomes (they have generally more than ten). Second there is a difference of at least 2% between the 18S rDNA sequence of this myzostome and each of the seven compared hypomyzostomes."
References: Thanks to Professor Charles Griffiths (UCT) for information. Myzostomida: a link between trochozoans and flatworms? I Eeckhout et. al. Proc. R. Soc. Lond., 2000, p1383-1392.
Previous	News Index	Next