IntroANNiKEY.html

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<TITLE>Introduction</TITLE>
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<FONT SIZE=6><P ALIGN="CENTER">ANNiKEY</P>
</FONT><FONT SIZE=4><P ALIGN="CENTER">An identification key and information system for Annelida</P>
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<P>&nbsp;</P>
<B><P>Authors</P>
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<P>Chris Glasby, Australian Museum/Museum & Art Gallery Northern Territory, Australia [annelids] </P>
Olga Biriukova, Museum & Art Gallery Northern Territory, Australia [annelids]</P>
Patrick Martin, Royal Belgium Institute of Natural Sciences, Belgium [microdriles]</P>
Geoff Dyne, 2 Doolette Place, Kambah  ACT, Australia [earthworms]</P>
Serge Utevsky, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine [leeches]</P>
Robin Wilson, Museum Victoria, Australia [annelids]</P>
<P>&nbsp;</P>
<B><P>Citation</P></B>
<P>Glasby CJ, Biriukova O, Martin P, Dyne G, Utevsky S, Wilson R (2024) ANNiKEY: An identification key and information system for Annelida.
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<B><P>Introduction</P>
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<P>ANNiKEY is an identification tool for family level taxa of the phylum Annelida - a DELTA database of 329 characters and 166 taxa at or around family level.  The data are interrogated using the open-source DELTA program Intkey, which enables both interactive identification and taxonomic query functionality. Links are also provided to an online Annelida Glossary.  These tools allows the user to obtain:</P>
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<LI>identifications of adult annelids from any part of the world to family or higher taxonomic level;</LI>
<LI>diagnostic and full descriptions of families and higher taxa;</LI>
<LI>general information on biology, further reading, and automated Web searches for all families and higher taxa;</LI></OL>

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</FONT><B><P>Source of Data</P>
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<P>A previous version of ANNiKEY was POLiKEY, as DELTA database of 95 characters and 82 family-level taxa prepared by Kristian Fauchald in 1995. The original data set has been substantially revised and updated to reflect the enormous amount of work that has been published in recent years. The primary additional data source, including illustrations, for POLiKEY is Beesley, P.L., Ross, G.J.B. &amp; Glasby, C.J. (eds) 2000. <I>Polychaetes &amp; Allies. The Southern Synthesis</I>. <I>Fauna of Australia Vol 4A. Polychaeta, Myzostomida, Pogonophora, Echiura, Sipuncula</I>. CSIRO Publishing : Melbourne. xii + 465 pp. Data for the few families that were not treated by Beesley, Ross &amp; Glasby (2000) were drawn from Rouse &amp; Pleijel (2001), and this reference was also used as a basis for classification above family level and for family authorities. </P>
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<P>Disclaimer</B>:</P>

<P>ANNiKEY is designed to work for adult, sexually unmodified individuals. ANNiKEY may not be able to identify highly modified sexually mature individuals of some families (e.g. Syllidae), which often bear little resemblance to unmodified members of their family. Fortunately, incidences of these forms in benthic surveys are usually rare.</P>

<P>Also, very early juvenile stages of some groups may not be identifiable with ANNiKEY, especially those groups that undergo strong ontogenetic changes associated with cephalisation (e.g. Hesionidae). </P>

<P>Finally, there are sure to be errors in the database, and perhaps better characters to use for identification. We welcome comments on ways to improve the system. </P>

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<P>Future versions and development</P>
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<P>This is the first release of ANNiKEY which we hope to update irregularly, providing new version from the associated Zenodo repository [link]. Taxonomic changes to family level taxa that will certainly occur can be tracked using the references to taxon pages at the World Register of Marine Species [link].</P>
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