Morphology and mode of life of the polychaeteRotularia

The serpulidRotularia built rather regular, planispiral or trochospiral tubes with an uncoiled adult portion. Juveniles ofRotularia were cemented to small substrates, and later in ontogeny grew into secondary, reclining epifaunal soft-bottom dwellers in medium- to high-energy environments. The uncoiled adult portion, together with the coiled portion of the tube, constituted a stabilizing structure increasing the effective area of contact with the substrate, and was only exceptionally bent out of the coiling plane, a situation common in other sessile soft-bottom dwellers among polychaetes and gastropods.