Tubulanus ruber

Tubulanus ruber
Humboldt County, CA, 2025
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Nemertea
Class: Palaeonemertea
Order: Tubulaniformes
Family: Tubulanidae
Genus: Tubulanus
Species:
T. ruber
Binomial name
Tubulanus ruber
(Griffin, 1898)[1]
Synonyms[1]
  • Carinella rubra Griffin, 1898

Tubulanus ruber is a species of ribbon worm in the phylum Nemertea. Its range extends across the Pacific coast of North America, from the Monterey Bay to the Gulf of Alaska.[2] This species is found on boulders of the rocky intertidal, unlike many other species of Tubulanus that inhabit the sandy intertidal.[3][4]

Description

Tubulanus ruber can grow to more than 3 meters in length when fully extended, making this species one of the largest in its genus.[2] It is also one of the visible, with its striking red, vermillion, or orange color.[2][3]

Taxonomy

Tubulanus ruber was first described by Bradney Beverley Griffin as Carinella rubra in 1898. This took place during his zoological expedition to Alaska and Washington as a graduate student, on fellowship from Columbia University.[5] The species was later transferred to the genus Tubulanus.[1] In 1940, Wesley Coe synonymized specimens from the Pacific Ocean with the type species, Tubulanus polymorphus,[6] which was known from the Atlantic Ocean.[7] However, a 2015 study re-established T. ruber as a separate species, citing distinct differences in coloration, reproductive biology, habitat, and genetics.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c Norenburg, Jon (2024). "Tubulanus ruber (Griffin, 1898)". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 26 September 2025.
  2. ^ a b c Coe, Wesley Roswell (1905). Nemerteans of the west and northwest coasts of America. Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. pp. 109–110.
  3. ^ a b c von Döhren, Jörn; Krämer, Daria; Bartolomaeus, Thomas (2015). "Analysis of a comprehensive data set on Tubulanus polymorphus Renier, 1804 leads to a separation of the species and to re-establishment of Tubulanus (Carinella) ruber (Griffin, 1898)". Proceedings of the 16th Annual Meeting of the GfbS.
  4. ^ de Kluijver, M.J. "Tubulanus annulatus". Macrobenthos of the North Sea: Nemertina. Marine Species Identification Portal. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
  5. ^ Griffin, Bradney (1898). "Description of some marine nemerteans of Puget Sound and Alaska". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 11 (1): 193--218 – via Wiley Online Library.
  6. ^ Coe, Wesley Roswell (1940). "Revision of the nemertean fauna of the Pacific coasts of North, Central, and northern South America". Allan Hancock Pacific Expeditions. 2: 247--322.
  7. ^ Krämer, Daria (2017). Species Identification and Delimitation in Nemerteans. Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.