Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.Disclaimer All information and any services provided from, its subdomain or all other pages under this domain are on an "as-is" and "as-available" basis without warranties of any kind and are made available for your general information and use only. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Comparison sequences from GenBank (three closest matches) are in black. Maximum likelihood phylogenies ( A: 16SrRNA, lnL = −1604.2619 B: COI, lnL = −3743.2685) constructed using RAxML from prey sequences amplified from hoplonemertean larval samples (i.e., gut contents) or from remains of prey items consumed by hoplonemertean larvae in the lab (red). Ivb1236-Figure_S2.pdfPDF document, 207 KBįigure S2. For Carcinonemertes epialti, the crab species from which specimens were collected is shown as: Mm, Metacarcinus magister Cm, Carcinus maenas Pp, Pugettia producta.
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Sequences shown in red are obtained in this study, in black are comparison sequences from GenBank. Bootstrap support values <50% are not shown. A maximum likelihood phylogeny constructed using RAxML from COI sequences of hoplonemertean larval samples and three of their respective closest matches from GenBank (InL = −3631.08). More broadly, the possibility that many animal larvae are actually carnivores invites reconsideration of prevailing stereotypes about metazoan developmental modes and the trade-offs between them. This conclusion has important consequences for biogeographic and life history studies in this group, because it implies enhanced potential for long-distance dispersal. Although there is no doubt that some hoplonemerteans are genuine lecithotrophs, our evidence suggests that many species in this group both feed and grow during an extended planktonic larval period. attacking, subduing, and devouring pelagic crustaceans, including barnacle nauplii, cyprids, copepods and their nauplii, and others. We recorded wild-caught larvae of Paranemertes californica, Paranemertes sp., Gurjanovella littoralis, Emplectonema viride, Carcinonemertes epialti, and Ototyphlonemertes sp. Here we provide direct evidence that this is indeed the case for six distinct species of hoplonemerteans. Because these so-called planuliform larvae lack apparent means to concentrate suspended algae or other unicellular food, one alternative hypothesis is that they are planktonic predators that hunt large prey. Observations that some hoplonemertean larvae are found in plankton samples at a range of sizes, and much larger than hatchlings, suggest that they must indeed feed somehow.
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Indeed, attempts to raise such larvae to settlement without food invariably fail. The superficially simple ciliated planktonic larvae of hoplonemerteans have been assumed to be lecithotrophic direct developers, even though many develop from such small eggs that it is hard to imagine how they could give rise to a viable juvenile without some phase of larval feeding.