Maël Grosse is mapping Swedish spaghetti worms
Maël Grosse is a new postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Marine Sciences. He is a marine biologist and taxonomist and will devote the coming year to a group of marine polychaete worms. He expects to make several discoveries, and he already has a cupboard full of new species.
What will you be working on here?
"I will be working with a group of bristle worms of the Terebellidae family, also known as spaghetti worms. They live on the seabed and have tentacles that they use to obtain food and build tubes in which they live. The project I am working on is a taxonomic study focusing on biodiversity, where I will work to find out how many species in the family exist in Sweden, create an updated checklist of what they are and where they are found, and also describe new species. I already have a cupboard full of species that have not yet been described. I will probably also have to recategorise some species. These may be species that were described a hundred years ago and need to be recategorised so that they are placed correctly in the taxonomy."
What have you done previously?
"Earlier this year (2025), I completed my PhD at the University of the Balearic Islands in Palma, studying marine bristle worms in the Cirratulidae family in European waters. I did most of the work at the Tjärnö Marine Laboratory. My assistant supervisor was Arne Nygren, who works at the Department of Marine Sciences with the taxonomy of polychaete worms. Before I started my doctoral work, I worked as a project assistant at Tjärnö. I obtained my bachelor's degree at the University of Dijon in France and then completed the NABiS (Nordic Academy in Biodiversity and Systematics) master's programme at NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) in Trondheim. That was when I first came to Tjärnö, to take a course on biodiversity in invertebrates."
What do you do when you're not working?
"I read a lot, mostly fantasy and science fiction. I also enjoy being out in nature here on Tjärnö. I go out into the forest as often as I can, especially now in autumn when there are plenty of mushrooms to pick."
Terebellidae, also known as spaghetti worms in English
- Terebellidae comprises approximately 850 species globally, 59 of which are listed in Sweden. Despite being common here, knowledge about them is lacking – many species descriptions are outdated.
- They belong to the group of bristle worms, which is a diverse group of annelids with over 10,000 described species. Most live on either soft or hard sea beds from the intertidal zone to the greatest depths.
- Terebellidae are characterised by their diverse and long tentacles that protrude above the worm's mouth.
- The project uses DNA barcoding, microscopy and systematic revisions of both new and older material to map and identify bristle worms along the Swedish coast.
- The project runs from 2025 to 2027 and is funded by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).
