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Distribution, abundance and trail characteristics of acorn worms at Australian continental margins

Created 20/01/2026

Updated 20/01/2026

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Acorn worms (Enteropneusta), which were previously thought to be a missing link in understanding the evolution of chordates, are an unusual and potentially important component of many deep-sea benthic environments, particularly for nutrient cycling. However very little is known about their distribution, abundance, or behaviour in deep-sea environments around the world, and almost nothing is known about their distribution within Australian waters. In this study, we take advantage of two large-scale deep-sea mapping surveys along the eastern and western continental margins of Australia to quantify the distribution, abundance and trail-forming behaviour of this highly unusual taxon. This is the first study to quantify the abundance and trail behaviour of acorn worms within Australian waters and provides the first evidence of strong depth-related distributions.

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Title Distribution, abundance and trail characteristics of acorn worms at Australian continental margins
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/fcb53f0d-cd88-4cf1-89ae-f0566ec0242c
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 22/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        107.0,
        -32.0
      ],
      [
        162.0,
        -32.0
      ],
      [
        162.0,
        -21.0
      ],
      [
        107.0,
        -21.0
      ],
      [
        107.0,
        -32.0
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Data.gov.au