Spoon Worms (Echiura)

Spoon Worms (Echiura) is a Browse By group of the Nature Atlas that gathers the spoon worms, or echiurans, cylindrical unsegmented marine worms that burrow in seafloor sediment and feed by extending a broad scoop-shaped proboscis that cannot be drawn back into the body. An entry belongs here when its own cited article describes a spoon worm or the echiurans. It excludes the bristle worms, the earthworms and the leeches, which have groups of their own, although the spoon worms are counted among the annelid worms and have simply lost the segmented body plan typical of that group. The group lets a reader find these unusual burrowers next to their segmented relatives.