Seasearch Ireland: Polychaete Identification

This workshop will cover how to identify the major families of polychaetes found along the Irish coast, and the common genera within them. The morphological characters used to identify each group will be covered, along with the habitats they would be expected to be found in. Examples of common species will be shown as examples, as well as advice on how to best photograph polychaetes for identification and future validation.

Jamie Maxwell is a marine biologist, whose research focuses on the taxonomy, ecology and zoogeography of marine invertebrates. He completed his B.Sc. in Marine biology in the University of Galway. He did his M.Sc. in Marine biology at the University of Algarve where he investigated the distribution and connectivity of polychaetes that live commensally with deep-sea corals, from which he described a new species, Gorgoniapolynoe pseudocaeciliae. He returned to Galway to complete his Ph.D. investigating the phylogeny, ecology and distribution of Antarctic sea spiders. Jamie currently works at the National Museum of Ireland, Natural History as a collections assistant.