多毛纲动物以海洋底栖分布为主,在长期的进化过程中,产生了形形色色适应不同环境的形态特征和生活史策略.对其系统学的研究,有助于理解自然界生物多样性的保持机制及其在生物系统进化过程中所发挥的作用.从目前的研究结果来看,多毛纲动物为并系发生,但它们在环节动物系统发生树中的基部类群以及大部分并系群之间的相互关系仍有待确定.今后应该增加各类群有代表性的物种的取样数量,开展形态学特征、生活史策略以及分子遗传标记的综合研究,以期完善多毛纲动物的系统学.
Polychaeta is mainly found in marine benthic environments. During long-term evolutionary process, various morphologic characters and life history strategies have been developed to adapt their ambient surroundings; therefore understanding systematics of these animals is helpful to unveil the mechanism of biodiversity maintenance and its role in ecosystem evolution. Although recent advance in molecular phylogeny appreciates the paraphyletic status of polychaetes, the relationships between most paraphyletic taxa as well as their basal taxa position in annelid remain to be resolved: To obtain a deeper insight into the polychaete systematics, increased sampling of representative taxon is promising for the investigation of their morphology, life history and molecular phylogeny.