EVOLUTION & DEVELOPMENT 11:1, 97–108 (2009) DOI: 10.1111/j.1525-142X.2008.00306.x Musculature in sipunculan worms: ontogeny and ancestral states Anja Schulzeà and Mary E. Rice Smithsonian Marine Station, 701 Seaway Drive, Fort Pierce, FL 34949, USA ÃAuthor for correspondence (email:
[email protected]). Present address: Department of Marine Biology, Texas A & M University at Galveston, 5007 Avenue U, Galveston, TX 77551, USA. SUMMARY Molecular phylogenetics suggests that the introvert retractor muscles as adults, go through devel- Sipuncula fall into the Annelida, although they are mor- opmental stages with four retractor muscles that are phologically very distinct and lack segmentation. To under- eventually reduced to a lower number in the adult. The stand the evolutionary transformations from the annelid to the circular and sometimes the longitudinal body wall musculature sipunculan body plan, it is important to reconstruct the are split into bands that later transform into a smooth sheath. ancestral states within the respective clades at all life history Our ancestral state reconstructions suggest with nearly 100% stages. Here we reconstruct the ancestral states for the head/ probability that the ancestral sipunculan had four introvert introvert retractor muscles and the body wall musculature in retractor muscles, longitudinal body wall musculature in bands the Sipuncula using Bayesian statistics. In addition, we and circular body wall musculature arranged as a smooth describe the ontogenetic transformations of the two muscle sheath. Species with crawling larvae have more strongly systems in four sipunculan species with different de- developed body wall musculature than those with swimming velopmental modes, using F-actin staining with fluo- larvae.