Editing Nemertea (section)

==History==

In 1555 [[Olaus Magnus]] wrote of a marine worm which was apparently {{convert|17.76|m|ft}} long ("40 cubits"), about the width of a child's arm, and whose touch made a hand swell. [[William Borlase]] wrote in 1758 of a "sea long worm", and in 1770 [[Johan Ernst Gunnerus|Gunnerus]] wrote a formal description of this animal, which he called ''Ascaris longissima''. Its current name, ''[[Lineus longissimus]]'', was first used in 1806 by Sowerby.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Cedhagen|first=Tomas|author2=Per Sundberg|year=1986|title=A previously unrecognized report of a nemertean in the literature|journal=[[Archives of Natural History]] |volume=13|pages=7–8|issn=0260-9541|doi=10.3366/anh.1986.13.1.7}}</ref> In 1995, a total of 1,149 species had been described and grouped into 250 genera.<ref name="Gibson">{{cite journal |author=R. Gibson |year=1995 |title=Nemertean genera and species of the world: an annotated checklist of original names and description citations, synonyms, current taxonomic status, habitats and recorded zoogeographic distribution |journal=[[Journal of Natural History]] |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=271–561 |doi=10.1080/00222939500770161}}</ref>

Nemertea are named after the Greek sea-[[nymph]] Nemertes, one of the daughters of [[Nereus]] and [[Doris (Oceanid)|Doris]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Barnes|first=Richard Stephen Kent|title=The Invertebrates: a Synthesis|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TBMsbe9efPgC&q=rhynchocoel&pg=PA82|access-date=27 Jan 2011|year=2001|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|pages=81–83|chapter=The worms|isbn=978-0-632-04761-1}}</ref> Alternative names for the phylum have included ''Nemertini'', ''Nemertinea'', and ''Rhynchocoela''.<ref name="Scott">{{cite book|last=Scott|first=Thomas|title=Concise Encyclopedia of Biology|year=1996|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-010661-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/conciseencyclope00scot/page/815 815–816]|chapter=Nemertini, Rhynchocoela, Nemertea, Nemertinea|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/conciseencyclope00scot/page/815}}</ref><!-- [[Libbie Hyman]] named them Rhynchocoela, a name used primarily in North America but gradually abandoned since the 1980s. --> The [[Nemertodermatida]] are a separate phylum, whose closest relatives appear to be the [[Acoela]].<ref name="PapsBaguñàEtc2009">{{cite journal |vauthors=Paps J, Baguñà J, Riutort M |title=Lophotrochozoa internal phylogeny: new insights from an up-to-date analysis of nuclear ribosomal genes |journal=[[Proceedings of the Royal Society B]] |volume=276 |issue=1660 |pages=1245–54 |date=April 2009 |pmid=19129141 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2008.1574  |pmc=2660960}}</ref><ref name="Jimenez-GuriPapsEtc2006">{{cite journal |vauthors=Jimenez-Guri E, Paps J, Garcia-Fernandez J, Salo E |title=Hox and ParaHox genes in Nemertodermatida, a basal bilaterian clade |journal=[[International Journal of Developmental Biology]] |volume=50 |issue=8 |pages=675–9 |year=2006 |pmid=17051477 |doi=10.1387/ijdb.062167ej |doi-access=free }}</ref>