Gephyrea

Gephyrea is a now-dismantled class of marine worms, containing the three modern taxa Echiura, Sipuncula, and Priapulida.{{cite journal

| author1 = Banta, W.C.

| author2 = Rice, M.E.

| title = A restudy of the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale fossil worm, Ottoia prolifica

| journal = Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Biology of the Sipunculata and Echiura

| volume = 11

| year = 1970

| url = https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/6842/sms_banta_1971.pdf

}} Also Sternaspis, the first described genus in the family Sternaspidae, was at some point assumed to be related to Echiura and therefore included in the Gephyrea.[https://books.google.com/books?id=gS9VEAAAQBAJ&dq=Gephyrea+Sternaspidae+Echiura&pg=PA270 Annelida] This class was not monophyletic. Priapulida are now considered a distinct phylum among Ecdysozoa, while the other two taxa are classified as Annelids. The word was created by Quatrefages{{cite journal

|language= fr

|author1= Armand de Quatrefages

|title= Études sur les types inférieurs de l'embranchement des Annelés. Mémoire sur l'Échiure de Gaertner (Echiurus gaertnerii Nob.)

|journal= Annales des sciences naturelles

|publication-place= Paris

|publisher= Crochard

|volume= 7

| series= Series 3, Zoologie

|date= 1847

|pages= 307–343

|url= http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13406375

}} from the Greek γέφυρα (géphura) 'bridge', because these animals seemed intermediate between Annelids and Holothurians.{{Cite web

|author1= Geoffrey Read

|title= Gephyrea

|url= https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1019642

|date= 17 July 2017

|website= WoRMS

|access-date=7 March 2023}}