In 1998, during a toxicological surveillance of various marine fouling organisms in Hiroshima Bay, Japan, specimens of the ribbon worm, Cephalothrix simula (Nemertea: Palaeonemertea) were found. These ribbon worms contained toxins with extremely strong paralytic activity. The maximum toxicity in terms of tetrodotoxin (TTX) was 25,590 mouse units (MU) per gram for the whole worm throughout the m...

Genetic screens in flies and worms have long been a powerful way of identifying proteins that regulate synaptic transmission. A recent study of ribbon synapses in the retina of zebrafish is an excellent example of how this approach can now be applied to a vertebrate species.

The taxonomy of ribbon worms (Nemertea) is particularly challenging due to the sparsity distinct morphological characters, causing a significant underestimation group’s true diversity. number named deep-sea species very limited and there vast undescribed nemerteans still be discovered. In this paper we figuratively ‘cut ribbon’ name seven new monostiliferous hoplonemerteans from seeps seamounts...