Priapulida

Priapulida (priapulid worms, from Gr. πριάπος, priāpos 'Priapus' + Lat. -ul-, diminutive), sometimes referred to as penis worms, is a phylum of unsegmented marine worms. The name of the phylum relates to the Greek god of fertility, because their general shape and their extensible spiny introvert (eversible) proboscis may resemble the shape of a human penis.

Ottoia is a stem-group archaeopriapulid worm known from Cambrian fossils. Although priapulid-like worms from various Cambrian deposits are often referred to Ottoia on spurious grounds, the only clear Ottoia macrofossils come from the Burgess Shale of British Columbia, which was deposited . Microfossils extend the record of Ottoia throughout the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, from the mid- to late Cambrian. A few fossil finds are also known from China.

Halicryptus is the sole genus of its class of priapulid worms, and has an important effect on the structure of soft-sediment communities.

species of priapulid worms

Priapulidae is the canonical family of priapulid worms, comprising Priapulus and Priapulosis as well as the Carboniferous genus Priapulites.

Priapulus is a genus of worms belonging to the family Priapulidae.

Tubiluchidae is one of the two families of priapulimorphidan priapulid worms.

species of priapulid worms

Selkirkia is a genus of predatory, tubicolous priapulid worms known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale, Ogygopsis Shale, Puncoviscana Formation and the Early Ordovician Fezouata Formation. 142 specimens of Selkirkia are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 0.27% of the community. In the Burgess Shale, 20% of the tapering, organic-walled tubes are preserved with the worm inside them, whereas the other 80% are empty (or sometimes occupied by one or more small agnostid trilobites). Whilst alive, the tubes were probably vertical, whereas trilobite-occupied tubes are horizo

Louisella is a genus of worm known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. It was originally described by Charles Walcott in 1911 as a holothurian echinoderm, and represents a senior synonym of Miskoia, which was originally described as an annelid. 48 specimens of Louisella are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise < 0.1% of the community. It has been stated to have palaeoscolecid-like sclerites, though this is not in fact the case.

extinct species of priapulid worms

Priapulimorphida is the sole order within the Priapulimorpha, one of the three extant priapulid classes.

Maccabeus is the sole genus of seticoronarian priapulid worms. It dwells inside an agglutinated tube.

Eximipriapulus is a genus of priapulid-like organisms, perhaps belonging to the crown group, known from the Chengjiang biota.